THE USE OF INDOOR GREENERY SYSTEM TO RELIEF STRESS IN A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Singapore’s ongoing pursuit for academic excellence have contributed to rising academic stress among students. Extensive studies have shown how the physical environment affects stress level and can facilitate as stress coping mechanism. Over the years, there is an increasing number of researches that establish the positive relationship between greenery and stress levels. As such, this study explores how indoor vertical greenery system (VGS) alleviates stress among students. In order to do so, the level of stress during and after a stressful event will be analysed. In addition, during the experiment, participants’ stress levels will be monitored as they undergo two stressful simulations. Physiological readings and qualitative results were taken for the analysis. Results of this study show that VGS was not significant in relieving stress during and after a stressful event. In spite of which, results from Simulation B show signs that VGS does promote stress recovery. However, these findings were limited to various influencing factors (e.g. immersive tendencies, level of presence). Future studies should consider and address the limitation of the study.