Senses in Planting Design

    The second pin-up of research questions I felt myself de-railing from my initial questions and begin going over-compensating for my research questions, rather than narrowing them down. During travel week, I did not do much research, so by last Thursday (February 12th), I felt very unsteady for the coming annotated bibliography and final research questions.

    After individual critics with Lily, I really wanted to focus back in on 'planting design' as the subject for my research questions. I want to see how planting design affects likeability, livability, and enjoyment in cities. The general perception of plants is what I keep circling back to. So I did a general search on Google Scholar for 'planting design in cities". I came across a journal title Greening urban landscapes: A systematic literature review of planting design for resilient and livable cities and while it did not relate directly with what I wanted to study, it had come helpful references that helped ground my search to find a question.

    A particularly useful resource was a journal of a study done in Iran titled Preferences and emotion perceptions of ornamental plant species for green space designing among urban park users in Iran. It covered the preferences and emotional perceptions of residents in two major cities, Rasht and Ardabil, towards eight ornamental plants. The study specifically compared and contrasted how citizens were affected by the color of the plants, finding interesting data about climate and age affecting color preference. This survey, however, didn't cover scent, and I think it would be interesting to explore how the smell of plants also affects perception of an outdoor space.