Experience of vegetation–borne colours

The perception of vegetation-borne colours is inherent to the human landscape experience and, thus, central to landscape architects' design and management practices. The topic, however, is under-researched. This study explores people's perception of, and emotional responses to, colours of vegetation and how that perception is influenced by distance, seasonal changes, and the complexity of the vegetation system. The results show that even small distance changes, within the close-up spectrum of 0 to 20 metres, influence vegetation-borne colour to be experienced in two qualitatively different ways: 1) as a ‘colour mass’ and, 2) as ‘colour architecture’. In addition to the seasons, distance was a decisive element when it came to perceiving a colour's hue, value, and chroma; the varying vegetation compositions, however, were less influential. A dynamic relationship was also illustrated with regard to emotional response—the distance at which the perceived colours generated the most positive associations changed with the seasons.