Education

12%

faster task completion with indoor plants present

Exact: 12% quicker reaction time

Adding plants to a windowless computer lab made participants 12% quicker on a timed computer task

In a study set in a windowless college computer lab, the presence of indoor plants was associated with a 12% improvement in reaction time on a timed computer task, suggesting a meaningful boost to productivity in otherwise sterile work environments.

When plants were added to this interior space, the participants were more productive (12% quicker reaction time on the computer task) and less stressed (systolic blood pressure readings lowered by one to four units).
Virginia I. Lohr et al., 1996, Journal of Environmental Horticulture

Machine-extracted, quote-verified. Report an error

Related findings

Read more in

Empty classroom with wooden chair-desks and a full-height window onto trees Education

What school spaces do to children

Where the evidence on classroom air, acoustics, light and green is robust, where it is thin, and what to measure before the build.

12 May 2026 · 13 min · 18 sources
Residential apartment block with a stone facade, recessed balconies and lowered shutters Housing
09 Housing

What an insecure home does to people

Britain abolished no-fault eviction. The evidence reads it as a health intervention, and the market decides who it reaches.

31 May 2026 · 15 min · 24 sources

More from The Built Review

Silhouette of a person sitting at a floor-to-ceiling window with a view over Potsdamer Platz in Berlin Workplace

Germany's missing indoor-air bill

France, Britain and Australia have priced bad indoor air. Germany's missing number is a political choice, not a methodological limit.

10 Jun 2026 · 12 min · 14 sources
All reports

← All findings