The Effects of Greenery in Balconies of Apartments on People’s Well-Being: Using Virtual Reality

Abstract

The issue of well-being in the built environment has received considerable critical attention in recent years. Especially during COVID-19, when people had to stay indoors and stay away from green spaces, the importance of balconies increased. The paper will in particular focus on the potential to design balconies with sufficient greenery in buildings that contributes to people’s well-being. To test this hypothesis, virtual reality (VR) technology and experiments were conducted with 45 participants. Virtual reality is a tool that provides the conditions for users to immerse themselves in their surroundings. Participants were randomly assigned to three separate groups, each consisting of two different VR environments and asked them oral questions based on a standard questionnaire (well-being in the built environment) to test which balcony is more effective in increasing well-being. The importance and originality of this study is that it evaluates well-being on balconies via virtual reality. The results show that greenery on the balcony could affect people’s well-being. The most obvious finding to emerge from the analysis is that greenery on balconies has significant differences in well-being. In such balconies, people feel happier, satisfied, connected to others, have independence and have the ability to do something successfully, which leads to better mental health. Further analysis showed that the amount of greenery on the balcony makes no difference. In other words, with a small number (for instance, number of pots), the well-being can be improved. Moreover, the tests revealed that individuals of different ages and gender have no major significance in well-being on balconies.