Viewing plants can bring great pleasure. There is an array of new ideas and approaches these days that incorporate the display of plants in houses. In a recent trend, some homes are designed to allow residents to enjoy indoor greenery arranged in rooms or in adjacent outdoor spaces, creating a sense of unity.
Yuya Oyama, 38, of Saitama, had a two-story home built in the spring of 2019. The residence includes a large wall 3 meters high and 3 meters wide beside the entrance area, which faces a busy street. The wall is intended to shield the view into the dwelling from the street.
Potted plants that include fern, manryo (spearflower), are embedded into the wall and can be viewed through a window pane from one of the rooms.
There are also potted komoriran (common staghorn fern) and other leafy plants inside, giving off the impression that the greenery in the house is connected with the vegetation outside.
"My aim was to create an indoor space that feels like outdoors," said Oyama, who runs Ryokuensha Inc., a company that creates plant arrangements for office buildings and commercial facilities.
"Because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, more and more people want to include greenery, not only in their offices, but also in their homes," Oyama said.
As he himself spends more time recently at home for work and other purposes, Oyama has "come to appreciate the peace and tranquility of greenery more deeply," he said.
His family also likes this green environment, in which they can relax during this time when they tend to refrain from going out, Oyama said.
Sekisui House, Ltd. in September started to offer a new house design called Kokage Lounge that includes greenery. This layout features homes with large eaves jutting outward over a veranda-like indoor space from which those inside can view a garden.
People want houses where they can better enjoy outside vegetation from indoors, the company said.
The MJ Frame AG, which Misawa Homes Co. introduced into the market in July, similarly features a veranda outside a large window designed to create a feeling of unity between the plants in the garden and the leafy indoor vegetation.
Said Rie Shimizu, chief editor of the Modern Living housing magazine: "To be able to fully appreciate vegetation is a higher priority these days for many people -- for people who have been living with anxiety about the coronavirus for a lengthy period of time."
The magazine's September issue features an article about houses that emphasize having vegetation.
"Once you simply place large, medium or small plants in a room, you can make the space seem like an oasis," Shimizu said. "I suggest you grow plants to take in the comfort of not only by seeing them, but also touching and smelling them."
-- Greenery for condos
Vegetation has become an important element in condominiums, too.
A Green Event took place for the first time at Limxa, a condominium completed in 2005 that has 553 units, in August in Fuchu, Tokyo.
About 70 residents participated in the event, which featured activities that included weeding in an outdoor area with cherry trees and other plants as residents kept their distance to help prevent novel coronavirus infections.
The condominium is planning similar events, including the creation of a flowerbed to planting bulbs, in cooperation with Toho-Leo Co., the company that handles the landscaping at the condominium.
"The vegetation at our condominium is not only soothing, but also creates an opportunity for residents to interact with each other," said the head of the residents association at the condominium. "I hope we'll also be able to build relationships by introducing new lifestyles so that we can cooperate with each other during disasters."
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