IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i24p10656-d465405.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban Blue Acupuncture: An Experiment on Preferences for Design Options Using Virtual Models

Author

Listed:
  • Peeter Vassiljev

    (Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 51006 Tartu, Estonia)

  • Simon Bell

    (Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
    Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH3 9DF, UK)

  • Jekaterina Balicka

    (Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 51006 Tartu, Estonia)

  • Umme Aymona Ali Amrita

    (Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 51006 Tartu, Estonia)

Abstract

Within the BlueHealth project, funded under the Horizon 2020 European Union research framework, a number of targeted experimental design interventions created in virtual reality (VR) were used to test the effect and impact of planning and design on encouraging people to use various blue spaces. A set of designs in three different coastal landscape types—a cliff/steep slope; a sandy beach and an area of reed beds—located in Tallinn, Estonia, were used as the sites for nine different intervention designs. The designs were based on a combination of the site features and inspirations from solutions found in different locations internationally. Using 3D modelling and a Virtual Reality system, a set of nine videos, one to depict each intervention, was created and shown to a quota sample of 252 Estonian residents. Respondents were asked a set of questions associated with each option. The results were analysed statistically and qualitatively. The results uncovered key preferences for designs and revealed differences among age groups and the levels of personal interconnection with nature. However, there were problems associated with the interpretation and understanding of some of the options by some of the people due to the degree of realism of the VR representations, which may have affected the results. The project shows that VR could be a useful tool for testing design ideas as part of public participation approaches but that care is needed in ensuring that viewers understand what they are assessing.

Suggested Citation

  • Peeter Vassiljev & Simon Bell & Jekaterina Balicka & Umme Aymona Ali Amrita, 2020. "Urban Blue Acupuncture: An Experiment on Preferences for Design Options Using Virtual Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-37, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10656-:d:465405
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10656/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10656/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jiaying Shi & Tsuyoshi Honjo & Kaixuan Zhang & Katsunori Furuya, 2020. "Using Virtual Reality to Assess Landscape: A Comparative Study Between On-Site Survey and Virtual Reality of Aesthetic Preference and Landscape Cognition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-16, April.
    2. Simon Bell & Himansu Sekhar Mishra & Lewis R. Elliott & Rebecca Shellock & Peeter Vassiljev & Miriam Porter & Zoe Sydenham & Mathew P. White, 2020. "Urban Blue Acupuncture: A Protocol for Evaluating a Complex Landscape Design Intervention to Improve Health and Wellbeing in a Coastal Community," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peeter Vassiljev & Simon Bell, 2023. "While Experiencing a Forest Trail, Variation in Landscape Is Just as Important as Content: A Virtual Reality Experiment of Cross-Country Skiing in Estonia," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-19, February.
    2. Anna Wilczyńska & Gloria Niin & Peeter Vassiljev & Izabela Myszka & Simon Bell, 2023. "Perceptions and Patterns of Use of Blue Spaces in Selected European Cities: Tartu, Tallinn, Barcelona, Warsaw and Plymouth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-30, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marco Criado & Antonio Martínez-Graña & Fernando Santos-Francés & Leticia Merchán, 2020. "Landscape Evaluation as a Complementary Tool in Environmental Assessment. Study Case in Urban Areas: Salamanca (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-22, August.
    2. Marina Cervera & Simon Bell & Francesc Muñoz & Himansu S. Mishra & Lora E. Fleming & James Grellier & Glòria Carrasco-Turigas & Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen & Cristina Vert & Mireia Gascon, 2021. "A Transdisciplinary Approach to Recovering Natural and Cultural Landscape and Place Identification: A Case Study of Can Moritz Spring (Rubí, Spain)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-18, February.
    3. Tobias Börger & Anna Maccagnan & Mathew P. White & Lewis R. Elliott & Tim Taylor, 2023. "Was the trip worth it? Consistency between decision and experienced utility assessments of recreational nature visits," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(2), pages 525-545, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10656-:d:465405. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.