Characterizing the Supportive Environment of Informal Spaces on Cold Region University Campuses to Enhance Social Interaction Behavior

Research has confirmed the positive impact of social interaction behaviors, including improved mental health, creativity, and stress reduction. Notably, a relationship exists between the spatial characteristics of university campuses and social interaction behaviors. The theories of supportive environment and ecological psychology were used to investigate the quantitative relationship between spatial features of informal spaces and social interactions at a university in a cold region to determine supportive features. Deep learning-based computer vision methods were employed to collect and analyze crowd behavior data, and multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between the features and social interactions. The results indicate that functional features significantly influence social interactions, whereas physical features have a relatively minor impact on social interaction frequency. This finding confirms the efficacy of informal space design at cold-region universities in promoting social interaction behaviors. The deep learning method enables quantitative analysis of the effect of environmental features on social behaviors on cold-region university campuses, providing valuable design suggestions and insights for campuses in other regions and research related to social interaction behaviors.