Oct. 27--BERLIN -- Anyone who lives in a city would agree that urbanization has its dark side: Air pollution, the concrete jungle and climate change are among the things that add to the negative image of city life.
It's also true that the one thing that's often missing in the urban landscape -- greenery -- can help people relieve tension and recover from illnesses better.
These facts have combined to encourage more and more urbanites to include some vegetation in their homes wherever possible -- inside the home and even integrated into furniture.
The colour green has a calming and harmonizing effect, thus making it traditionally a popular choice for living-rooms, salons and libraries. When people spend a large portion of the day indoors it stands to reason that they want to see a colour so prominent in nature in their immediate surroundings.
"Nature should be an element of our everyday life," said designer Miriam Aust. "Design can give thought to a room and challenge certain moral ideals."
Aust has designed an indoor garden plot that is also a piece of furniture. It challenges people to dedicate themselves to take care of not only the piece itself, but also to pay attention to the plants it contains. The long wooden box with an integrated metal chair must be weeded, raked and the plants in it must be watered.
Designers have long considered how they could do something for the environment with the materials they work with. French designer Jean-Marie Massaud's design projects are seldom only stylistic. They are based more on an analysis of necessity.
"Designers should be more conscious of their responsibility as active members of the system and now more than ever before demonstrate new perspectives and developments that are in tune with the needs of today. Everything should be in harmony with our ecosystem," Massaud said.
Massaud has designed upholstered furniture that has a recess for plants for the Swedish company Offecct. He said he found it an amusing notion that people waiting in a public office or bank could actually sit under palms. His Green Islands line makes that possible, but it also functions in a home.
A similar idea has been put forward by designer duo Rosario Hurtado and Roberto Feo, who came up with a planter called Land Ho in various colours for the Swedish furniture manufacturer Nola. Its oval base is wide and long enough to use as a seat.
Another piece called Romeo and Juliet by the furniture manufacturer Extremis also is not just a bench for sitting on.
It is made of long planks of wood that serve as a bench. There are large round holes on either end of the bench under which large pots with small trees planted in them are positioned. Tables and stools with matching containers for plants has been developed by Arik Levy.
Admittedly some of the pieces are strictly for people who know design, but the across the industry there is increasing acceptance of ideas that support the presentation of plants.
Home accessories that include planters are spreading into product lines, for example. A leafy tropical fern is featured in picture frames available from the company WallFlower and Karl Andersson has designed planters that hang over wall units.
Kamal Meattle, an Indian researcher and businessman, is convinced that an expanded access to plants in the home or workspace is needed. After doctors told him 25 years ago that the air in New Delhi would kill him, he began to experiment with house plants.
He found out a combination of chrysalidocarpus lutenscens (also called butterfly palm or areca palm), sansevieria (also called mother-in-law's tongue) and epipremnum (also called the golden pothos vine or devil's ivy) measurably improved air quality when the three plants were situated in particular places in the room.
In his office building with attached hotel there are about 1,200 plants for the 300 employees who work there. Meattle said they help to reduce employee complaints, increase their productivity and at the same time lower the energy requirements of the building.
Consumers can find items such as shelves with integrated containers for plants, umbrella stands with planters incorporated into them and benches and chairs that offer space for large plants to grow out of them. These green ideas for the home are not only useful, they are increasingly in demand.
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