Botanica Atlanta | Landscape Design, Construction & Maintenance

The human eye delivers an inestimable and invaluable wealth of information to the brain at every given moment. As urban planner Gordon Cullen describes it in his book The Concise Townscape, “We turn to the faculty of sight, for it is almost entirely through vision that the environment is apprehended.” The eye passes this critical visual information an inch or so back to the brain, and this biological phenomenon allows us to perceive almost everything about our surroundings, including distance, texture, and color.

Image: B. Bubble

To the inhabitants of a landscape every object has a color, and to all of these perceivers each color carries unique social and cultural connotations. When surrounded by the color blue, for example, many of us think cooling thoughts of water. Perhaps the color green calls to your mind calming, refreshing thoughts of spring. Pastel blues often symbolize baby boys and pastel pinks represent baby girls. The color red can be associated with a wide range of meanings, from love and affection to anger and even blood.

Images: Joey Lim, Fabrice Rose, and Jeremy Brooks

Beneath this range of cultural color associations that we all carry with us, studies in color psychology have shown that humans connect with different colors on an even deeper, more subliminal level. Exposure to color can alter our moods, intensify emotions, and even strengthen or weaken our spirits. For example, various studies have shown that red, the same color that we may culturally associate with love or anger, can increase feelings of desire, aggression, and appetite. Studies have shown that blue, the natural color of very few foods, can reduce feelings of hunger. Greens have been found to cause feelings of comfort, calm, and rejuvenation, which is perhaps how the historic color for a theater’s backstage “green room” was selected.

Perhaps the clearest demonstration of the impact that an environment’s color can have on the human spirit involves the color pink. Some evidence has indicated that the color pink calms the muscles, relaxes the mood, and even reduces aggression. Decades ago, a clever football coach at the University of Iowa read about these theories and ordered the visiting team’s locker rooms to be painted pink. The only evidence that his strategy worked, that he was able to weaken the opposing players before the game even started, is anecdotal, but the practice has since caused much controversy. Interestingly enough, some prison wardens have since adopted this technique to successfully pacify especially violent inmates.

If seeing is so important, then the designers of landscapes must be vigilant in their selection of plants, materials, and exterior finishes. We must take into account the cultural, psychological, and even physiological implications that colors carry with them. What impact will color have in your garden and in the mind of your visitors? With a little research and careful consideration, it is much more likely to be positive and long lasting.

Images: Sam Valentine

By Sam Valentine, BLA, LEED AP