Useful daylight illuminance for ornamental plants in buildings - The method to design the green interior

The ornamental plants have various environmental requirements resulting from their place of origin. The light intensity is one of the parameters which should be considered during indoor greenery design. This paper proposed a novel approach to analyse daylight availability in building interiors due to the specific requirements of different plant groups. The formulation of the method was preceded by a literature review regarding the environmental requirements of plants and the characteristics of photo mechanisms occurring in plants. The positive effect on the indoor environment (among others by biofiltration and air-purification) and people (by many psychological aspects) were also demonstrated. We propose a methodology based on Useful Daylight Illuminance (UDI), which was adapted to the requirements of ornamental plants. In the proposed method, the specific UDI range was defined for different plants according to lighting requirements. The four groups of plants were identified with low, medium, high and very high light requirements. The use of the method in practice confirmed its usefulness. The analysis for different climatic zones allowed identify differences in the approach to solutions for potted plants depending on the lighting conditions obtained by daylight simulation. In addition, it was possible to determine the optimal locations for placing plants and those that require additional artificial lighting. The proposed methodology can be used for any interior design using any daylight simulation software for UDI calculation.