Can a visit to a botanical garden not only be interesting and educational, but
also psychologically restorative? Intuitively as well as based on a handful of
studies conducted in this area, one would expect the answer to be
confirmative. At the very least, a botanical garden should be the kind of green
space that can help dealing with the stress that often comes with urban life.
However, botanical gardens are more than just beautiful green parks: They
serve many different functions in terms of collecting and preserving plant life,
resulting in several different and highly specialized environments. For
example, the Hortus botanicus in Leiden - the oldest botanical garden in the
Netherlands - contains a series of greenhouses that harbor unique collections
requiring specific climate-controlled environments. Compared to walking
through the gardens, entering the controlled mini climate of a clearly delimited
greenhouse may give people an even stronger feeling of stepping away from
daily life while enjoying the specific environment. In collaboration with the
Hortus botanicus in Leiden, we are conducting a series of field and laboratory
studies to explore the general restorative potential of a botanical garden while
specifically focusing on strictly delineated key design elements like the
greenhouses on the terrain. In this presentation we will discuss the project
background and the general study design, and will present some preliminary
results.