Importance of Trees with Low-growing Branches and Shrubs in Perception of Urban Spaces

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of trees with low-growing branches and shrubs on human perception and their preference in large urban spaces. Such a narrow choice of the landscape elements is done in order to prove the hypothesis that trees with low-growing branches and shrubs are perceived as legibility, a type of a refuge that is an essential element of survival in the setting according to environmental psychology. Semi-structured interviews in walk-along mode were used to talk to residents about the ways they saw and enjoyed yards and streets in four residential areas: 'Agenskalna priedes', 'Kengarags', 'Zolitude', 'Lenina iela' in Riga. A discursive as well as nonverbal (gestures) analysis of interviews was conducted. The extracted information was compared between two groups of spaces: an open-undefined category of space and an enclosed category of space. The results show that trees with low-growing branches and shrubs have a positive impact on the preference and perception of the size in open-undefined spaces. Whereas the impact on preference of such trees in enclosed spaces is negative or neutral. It can be concluded that trees with low-growing branches and shrubs play a positive role as a legibility element in the space that appears to open and undefined for a human eye since these elements propose safety via better readability of the space. Trees with low-growing branches in the space that is narrow and enclosed also have the role of a legibility element. However, their importance is not the same in such a setting: an enclosed space has well-defined borders, and elements helping to oversee it are redundant.