Civil Research Talks | Matilde Molari | Detecting Perceived Restorativeness of green walls: first step of a comparative study between Turin and Lisbon

Matilde Molari | PhD Candidate, Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering
Polytechnic of Torino, Turin, Italy

May 2, 2023 | 16h00-17h00 | Room D.2.3 | Lusófona University, Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract: Urban renaturation strategies have recently adopted nature-based solutions as promising technologies to establish a new type of coexistence between man and urban nature. Nature-based solutions provide several ecosystem services to the urban environment. Green walls are among these solutions and can contribute with social, ecological and economic benefits. Following a socio-ecological approach, it becomes essential to establish tools to assess the impacts of these technologies on human psychological well-being, in order to guide an adaptive and data-driven design that takes into account citizens’ perceptions. The phenomenon of restorativeness explains the mental refreshment offered by the physical environment – natural or urban – and has been detected in city sites with different levels of urban greenery implementation. However, the influence of punctual interventions such as green walls on the perceived restorativeness offered by the urban context is still uncertain. The talk will introduce and discuss the method applied to assess the perceived restorativeness of citizens in relation to a living wall placed in Turin (Italy).