![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/urban-plaza-300x251.jpg\")
<\/a>In the downtown plaza scenario, virtual visitors near tall buildings wanted to be surrounded by as much green vegetation as possible, says landscape architect Payam Tabrizian, an NC State doctoral student in the College of Design and lead author of an article about the research. The top-rated landscape design among the 90 testers was one with trees on all four sides in a medium-density arrangement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn an urban setting, being enclosed by vegetation feels restorative. It can serve as a shield from the urban environment and create a kind of refuge where people can sit and relax for a while,\u201d says Tabrizian. \u201cPeople preferred urban environments that were very green and being enclosed in vegetation didn\u2019t seem to bother them that much.\u201d<\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t the case for visitors to virtual versions of Raleigh\u2019s Fletcher Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the neighborhood park setting, people preferred the opposite in terms of vegetation density and arrangement,\u201d Tabrizian says. \u201cIt seems that people have enough green surrounding them and want to know what\u2019s happening around them. When you enclose them with vegetation, they don\u2019t like it. They feel unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n While results varied slightly based on participants\u2019 backgrounds and physical abilities, the fundamental need for safety was clear. \u201cTo a large extent, we\u2019re hard wired to actually feel enclosure and to react as a matter of evolutionary survival,\u201d Tabrizian says. \u201cWe tend to use environments that give us some protection but that we also have some control over.\u201d<\/p>\n Follow-up studies are underway in the College of Natural Resources<\/a>, incorporating new setting types, such as a Manhattan high-rise environment. And NC State and Clemson researchers are collaborating to study whether there are cultural differences in landscape preferences.<\/p>\n IVR techniques could come in handy for landscape designers to get feedback on new designs or improvements to existing parks and green areas.<\/p>\n \u201cAs landscape designers, the instinct is to want to make changes, but sometimes leaving things as they are may be best,\u201d Tabrizian says. \u201cThis technology allows us to design a true experiment in which we control the variables, without ever planting or moving a tree.\u201d<\/p>\n The article, \u201cExploring perceived restoration potential of urban green enclosure through immersive virtual environments<\/a>,\u201d appears in the Journal of Environmental Psychology<\/em>.<\/p>\n Tabrizian\u2019s co-authors, all from NC State, are Perver K. Baran, teaching associate professor in parks, recreation and tourism management; William R. Smith, associate professor of sociology; and Ross K. Meentemeyer, professor and director of the Center of Geospatial Analytics.<\/p>\n This post was originally published<\/a> in NC State News.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false,"raw":"City dwellers who are weary of the concrete jungle often seek out a bit of nature. Whether they visit an urban park or find a small green space, residents can gain a host of benefits. Research in environmental psychology shows that natural environments can help brighten moods, reduce stress and renew focus.\n\nBut can being surrounded by trees and dense vegetation affect a vigilant visitor\u2019s sense of safety? The answer, according to a recent study, is that it depends on whether the green space is downtown between tall buildings or in a city park setting.\n\nNC State University experts used turned to immersive virtual reality (IVR) to test perceptions of green enclosures. Researchers with the Center for Geospatial Analytics<\/a> used a robot to capture 360-degree, high-resolution images of a downtown Raleigh plaza and of a city park, then manipulated the vegetation to create several different environments.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_475055\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\"] Research with VR goggles gives landscape designers fresh insight on how green landscapes refresh city residents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":12226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"ncstate_wire","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[12,14],"class_list":["post-12224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-giving","category-research-innovation","tag-landscape-architecture","tag-phd-design"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/city-park-300x247.jpg\")
<\/a><\/a> NC State researchers digitally manipulated the vegetation in a downtown Raleigh plaza.[\/caption]\n\nIn the downtown plaza scenario, virtual visitors near tall buildings wanted to be surrounded by as much green vegetation as possible, says landscape architect Payam Tabrizian, an NC State doctoral student in the College of Design and lead author of an article about the research. The top-rated landscape design among the 90 testers was one with trees on all four sides in a medium-density arrangement.\n\n\u201cIn an urban setting, being enclosed by vegetation feels restorative. It can serve as a shield from the urban environment and create a kind of refuge where people can sit and relax for a while,\u201d says Tabrizian. \u201cPeople preferred urban environments that were very green and being enclosed in vegetation didn\u2019t seem to bother them that much.\u201d\n\nThat wasn\u2019t the case for visitors to virtual versions of Raleigh\u2019s Fletcher Park.\n\n\u201cIn the neighborhood park setting, people preferred the opposite in terms of vegetation density and arrangement,\u201d Tabrizian says. \u201cIt seems that people have enough green surrounding them and want to know what\u2019s happening around them. When you enclose them with vegetation, they don\u2019t like it. They feel unsafe.\u201d\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_475058\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]<\/a> Raleigh's Fletcher Park provided the second setting for the research.[\/caption]\n\nWhile results varied slightly based on participants\u2019 backgrounds and physical abilities, the fundamental need for safety was clear. \u201cTo a large extent, we\u2019re hard wired to actually feel enclosure and to react as a matter of evolutionary survival,\u201d Tabrizian says. \u201cWe tend to use environments that give us some protection but that we also have some control over.\u201d\n\nFollow-up studies are underway in the College of Natural Resources<\/a>, incorporating new setting types, such as a Manhattan high-rise environment. And NC State and Clemson researchers are collaborating to study whether there are cultural differences in landscape preferences.\n\nIVR techniques could come in handy for landscape designers to get feedback on new designs or improvements to existing parks and green areas.\n\n\u201cAs landscape designers, the instinct is to want to make changes, but sometimes leaving things as they are may be best,\u201d Tabrizian says. \u201cThis technology allows us to design a true experiment in which we control the variables, without ever planting or moving a tree.\u201d\n\nThe article, \u201cExploring perceived restoration potential of urban green enclosure through immersive virtual environments<\/a>,\u201d appears in the Journal of Environmental Psychology<\/em>.\n\nTabrizian\u2019s co-authors, all from NC State, are Perver K. Baran, teaching associate professor in parks, recreation and tourism management; William R. Smith, associate professor of sociology; and Ross K. Meentemeyer, professor and director of the Center of Geospatial Analytics."},"excerpt":{"rendered":"