Public Preference of Biowall Area Configuration by Virtual Reality Assessment

Abstract

A biowall has the potential to provide human health and well-being benefits. However, some users consider a biowall as a hobby for their happiness. For this study, the general public’s preference for a biowall was explored. The assessment was based on five criteria, perceptual, thermal, visual, respiratory, and audial comfort. The method assessed public preferences regarding the biowall in virtual reality for living and family rooms in urban dwellings. Six biowall configurations were virtualized in both rooms. These configurations included control conditions without biowall, single potting biowall, hidden single potting biowall, multiple potting biowall, linear potting biowall, and fully potting biowall. One-way ANOVA with Tukey HSD analyzed the data with the main result that the variants of the public's preferences for the biowall configuration were significantly different. The final result showed that the fully potting biowall was the highest rating configuration, with a preference value of 4.64 (N = 25) for the family room and 4.81 (N = 25) for the living room. The variables with the highest preferences for perceptual, thermal, visual, respiratory, and audial comfort were interest, chillness, color, freshness, and spaciousness-magnificence, respectively. The most dominant variable influencing preference was the ability of biowall to provide freshness and magnificence in the room. Generally, the public preferred the addition of biowall in the room.