Search Results (33)

As an important part of world cultural heritage, waterscapes in Chinese classical gardens are renowned for their unique design, rich cultural connotations, and distinctive esthetic value. However, objective studies of their impact on mental health are lacking. This paper focuses on Xishu Garden, a Chinese classical garden, and examines four types of waterscapes (for a total of twelve) using eye-tracking technology and the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS). The aim of this study is to explore the restorative effects of different types of waterscapes with visual and audiovisual conditions, with particular attention paid to their mechanisms of action. The research results indicate that (1) waterscapes with an audiovisual interaction have a greater restorative value; (2) dynamic waterscapes have greater visual appeal than still landscapes do, but the latter have stronger environmentally restorative effects; and (3) the visual behavioral characteristics of waterscapes change during audiovisual interactions. This study contributes theoretical support for the maintenance and enhancement of Chinese classical gardens and the planning and design of modern urban green spaces, and it enriches our understanding of the role of waterscapes in restorative environments. Full article

As remote and hybrid work models continue to grow, the design of workspaces and their surrounding environments has gained even more importance. This study explores the impact of window design on the restorative potential of Prefabricated Movable Buildings (PMBs) of smart/co-working located in small villages. Using Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR), seven window configurations, varying in size, frame ratio, and number of glass panes, were evaluated. Participants’ sense of presence, defined as the subjective feeling of ‘being there’ in the virtual environment, and perceived restoration, referring mainly to the psychological (attention and emotions) and physiological (stress) resources recovery, were assessed using, respectively, Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ) and the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS). The overall IPQ results suggest that the virtual environment in this study provides a “High” sense of presence, highlighting the validity of IVR to evaluate architectural designs. The PRS results found that larger, uninterrupted windows with a higher Window-to-Wall Ratio and lower Frame Ratio significantly enhance participants’ perceived restoration. Restoration effects were also higher when offices were located in small villages rather than in business districts. These results highlight the importance of incorporating large windows in smart/co-working spaces within culturally rich small villages to promote worker well-being and office sustainability. Full article

The relationship between natural environments and psychological well-being has gained increasing attention in environmental and health sciences. However, there is still a lack of robust quantitative instruments to assess the restorative potential of different environments. This study aimed to adapt and validate the Portuguese version of the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), an instrument based on Attention Restoration Theory that evaluates the perceived restorative qualities of environments. In Study 1, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on data from 410 participants. The results supported a refined 20-item version of the scale, comprising four factors—being away, fascination, compatibility, and legibility—with good internal consistency and acceptable model fit. Measurement invariance analysis confirmed configural, metric, and scalar invariance across gender. In Study 2, a separate sample of 212 participants completed the PRS along with additional validated measures: the Sublime Emotion toward Nature Scale (SEN), an aesthetic evaluation of landscapes, and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The PRS showed strong convergent and discriminant validity and significantly predicted restorative outcomes. These findings support the psychometric adequacy of the Portuguese PRS and its relevance as a valid tool for assessing perceived restorativeness in both natural and built environments. The scale may inform future research and public policies aimed at designing spaces that promote psychological restoration and mental well-being. Full article

Contemporary college students face mounting psychological challenges under high academic pressure, and the design and functionality of campus environments may play a critical role in psychological recovery. Emerging evidence suggests that restorative benefits can be derived not only from natural environments but also from historically built settings rich in cultural narratives—can these historical environments compare to natural ones? This study surveyed how different campus environments affect students’ physiological (heart rate variability, HRV) and psychological (Profile of Mood States, POMS; Perceived Restorative Scale, PRS) outcomes. During the final exam week, 38 college students were exposed to four environments using a within-subject crossover design: an ordinary built environment, a natural landscape environment, a historical built environment with intentional historical narratives, and a built environment with unintentional historical narratives. The results indicated that the historical built environment with designed historical narratives provided restorative benefits comparable to those of natural landscape environments by enhancing HRV and improving mood states. These findings suggest that a historical built environment with intentional explicit historical interpretation can offer rehabilitation benefits similar to natural landscape environments, providing a practical pathway for high-density urban areas with small-scale historical campus settings to achieve effective restorative outcomes. Full article

The mental health of university students has received much attention due to the various pressures of studies, life, and employment. Several studies have confirmed that campus public spaces contain multiple restorative potentials. Yet, the campus public space is still not ready to meet students’ new need for restorative percetions. Renewal practices for campus public spaces that integrate multi-issues are becoming more important, and further clarification of the measurement methods and optimization pathways is also needed. This study applied the semantic segmentation technique of the deep learning model to extract the feature indicators of outdoor public space based on street view image (SVI) data. The subjective evaluation of small-scale SVIs was obtained using the perceived restorative scale-11 (PRS-11) questionnaire. On this basis, restorative benefit evaluation models were established, including the explanatory and predictive models. The explanatory model used Pearson’s correlation and multiple linear regression analysis to identify the key indicators affecting restorative benefits, and the predictive model used the XGBoost 1.7.3 algorithm to predict the restorative benefit scores on the campus scale. The accessibility results from sDNA were then overlayed to form a comprehensive assessment matrix of restoration benefits and accessibility dimensions to identify further “areas with optimization potential”. In this way, three types of spatial dimensions (LRB-HA, HRB-LA, and LRB-LA) and sequential orders of temporal dimensions (short-term, medium-term, and long-term) were combined to propose optimization pathways for campus public space with the dual control of restorative benefits and accessibility. This study provides methodological guidelines and empirical data for campus regeneration and promotes outdoor public space efficiency. In addition, it can offer positive references for neighborhood-scale urban design and sustainable development. Full article

Global climate change presents a serious threat to the sustainable development of human society, highlighting the urgent need to develop effective adaptation strategies to mitigate the impact of climate-related disasters. Campus waterfront green spaces, integral to the blue-green infrastructure, have been demonstrated to facilitate stress recovery. However, in hot and humid regions, severe outdoor thermal conditions may impair students’ mental and physical health and cognitive function, leading to symptoms such as increased stress, anxiety, and depression. This study examined the influence of outdoor thermal environments on health recovery by selecting three different waterfront green spaces in this climate: Space A (medium water body, sky view factor (SVF) = 0.228), Space B (large water body, SVF = 0.808), and Space C (small water body, SVF = 0.292). The volunteers’ thermal comfort and the restorative benefits of these spaces were evaluated via the perceived restorativeness scale (PRS), heart rate (HR), and electrodermal activity (EDA). We found variations in the neutral physiological equivalent temperature (PET) across the spaces, with values of 28.1 °C (A), 28.9 °C (B), and 29.1 °C (C). The lowest skin conductance recovery rate (R_SC) at 0.8811 was observed in Space B, suggesting suboptimal physiological recovery, despite higher scores in psychological recovery (fascination) at 15.23. The level of thermal comfort in this hot and humid region showed a negative correlation with the overall PRS score, the “being away” dimension, and heart rate recovery (R_HR). At a lightly warm stress level, where PET increased from 31.0 to 35.7 °C, R_SC peaked between 1.45 and 1.53 across all spaces. These insights provide guidance for urban designers and planners in creating waterfront green space designs that can improve the urban microclimate and promote thermal health, achieving sustainable health. Full article

This research aims to verify the effect of outdoor green teaching experiences on school affective qualities, perceived restorativeness, school climate, and global well-being in a sample of school teachers. A comparison was conducted between teachers who work mainly indoors and those who frequently run school activities outdoors in green spaces. A sample of kindergarten and primary school teachers working in different Italian regions (n = 209) filled in an online questionnaire including the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS-11), the Scale of Affective Qualities of Place, and the Revised School Level Environment Questionnaire (RSLEQ). Zero-order correlations, preliminary descriptive analyses of variance (ANOVAs) to compare teachers conducting Outdoor Education (vs. teachers conducting only or almost always indoor education), and structural equation modeling (SEM) were carried out on the measured variables. Results from ANOVAs evidenced that teachers conducting outdoor green education show higher levels of perceived affective qualities and restorativeness than teachers working mainly indoors. The model tested through SEM analysis showed that positive affective qualities attributed to the school are associated with higher levels of restorativeness and this, in turn, is linked to a more positive perception of social relationships at school, which increases life satisfaction. Overall, these outcomes support previous research demonstrating the beneficial psychological effects of nature experiences, also in the school environment. Full article

Urban secondary wilderness (USWs) is a near-natural place in cities and is an important link to reconnect humans with the natural world. Assessing the perceptual elements of USWs not only provides insight into public perceptions and preferences, but also helps to further explore its relevance to experiential values such as environmental restoration benefits. In this study, we selected three USWs cases located in Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian Province, China, and constructed an evaluation system containing two types of dimensions and seventeen perceptual elements. Based on the public’s evaluation of the importance of and satisfaction with the perceived elements, we extracted the key perceived elements and analyzed their relationship with environmental restoration benefits. The results indicated that all three USWs cases scored over 4.9 on the Perceived Restoration Scale (PRS). Plants, Landscape color, Water, Landform, Climate, Freedom, and Naturalness are the key perceptual elements of the USWs, and the correlation coefficients between the satisfaction with the above seven perceptual elements and the scores of the PRS were all positive. In summary, USWs is an ideal place for residents to carry out restoration activities, and its key perceptual elements play a driving role. Full article

Small urban open spaces are critical components of high-density urban environments, and could bring multiple health benefits. However, the factors related to the restorative effect of these small urban open spaces are not well studied. This study explored how site type (lawn, water, and plaza) and spatial scales (10 × 10 m, 20 × 20 m, 30 × 30 m, and 40 × 40 m) might be associated with small urban open space’s restorative effects. We created the virtual scene images of the 12 sites and used PRS-11 to measure 1130 participants’ perceived restoration when viewing those images. The results indicated that lawn has the highest restorative effects, and are the most preferred. No significant differences in the restorative effects of sites with different spatial scales were detected, even a 10 × 10 m site has considerable restorative effects. We found high preference contributes to larger differences in the restorative effects of lawns and plazas. Those who prefer the sites may gain more restoration increases when viewing lawn scenes compared to plaza scenes. Moreover, adults over 50 years old have higher perceived restorations, and young adults aged 18–25 have a greater increase in restoration between plaza scenes and natural scenes, indicating young adults could benefit more from the building of small green spaces. These findings have direct implications for design practice. More small urban open spaces of lawn and water should be built to provide more restoration benefits, especially for young people. Full article

Increasingly, urban planners are adopting virtual reality (VR) in designing urban green spaces (UGS) to visualize landscape designs in immersive 3D. However, the psychological effect of green spaces from the experience in VR may differ from the actual experience in the real world. In this paper, we systematically reviewed studies in the literature that conducted experiments to investigate the psychological benefits of nature in both VR and the real world to study nature in VR anchored to nature in the real world. We separated these studies based on the type of VR setup used, specifically, 360-degree video or 3D virtual environment, and established a framework of commonly used standard questionnaires used to measure the perceived mental states. The most common questionnaires include Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), and Restoration Outcome Scale (ROS). Although the results from studies that used 360-degree video were less clear, results from studies that used 3D virtual environments provided evidence that virtual nature is comparable to real-world nature and thus showed promise that UGS designs in VR can transfer into real-world designs to yield similar physiological effects. Full article

As important linear public spaces, urban greenways are highly important for improving public health. Many studies have proven the benefits of urban greenways for human well-being, but fewer studies have focused on the impact of their specific environmental types and characteristics on physical and mental health. In this study, 100 subjects participated in a comparative experiment on three types of urban greenways (urban roads, urban parks, and urban rivers), and corresponding physiological indicator (systolic blood pressure [SBP], diastolic blood pressure [DBP], and pulse) and psychological indicator (perceived restorativeness scale [PRS] and positive and negative affect schedule [PANAS]) data were collected. The results indicated that (1) different greenway environment types lead to different physiological and psychological states; (2) urban park-type greenways (SBP [t = 2.37, p = 0.020], DBP [t = 2.06, p = 0.042], PANAS = 2.80, PRS = 5.39) have the greatest physical and mental recovery benefits, followed by urban river-type greenways (SBP [t = 2.84, p = 0.006], DBP [t = 1.29, p = 0.200], PANAS = 2.30, PRS= 5.02) and urban road-type greenways (SBP [t = 0.78, p = 0.440], DBP [t = 0.37, p = 0.716], PANAS = 2.00, PRS = 4.15); (3) plant color and layer diversity have a significant positive impact on the mental health benefits of the three greenway types; (4) the aesthetics of waterscapes and ornaments can significantly improve the perceived restoration ability of urban river-type greenways; and (5) the comfort of pathways and facilities can effectively promote the psychological recovery potential of urban road-type greenways. These findings systematically demonstrate for the first time the differences in restoration potential among urban greenways of different environmental types and summarize the key landscape characteristic predictors influencing the restoration potential of various types of urban greenways. Our research provides new ideas for proactive greenway interventions for physical and mental health and for enriching the restorative environmental science system. Full article

Researchers have long explored how humans respond psychologically and physiologically to distinct landscapes and natural features. Walking in nature and viewing photographs of natural landscapes have been shown to reduce stress measured through the physiological responses of blood pressure, salivary cortisol concentration, and pulse rate. Exposure to natural landscapes has also been shown to improve feelings of relaxation and positive emotion. Little research, however, has focused on the potential impact of visualization through virtual reality (VR). This study explores how brain frequencies and psychological measures test the restorativeness of a virtual place. Utilizing VR, twenty-one participants observed a virtual, vegetated, vacant site as it exists currently and then again as a reimagined greenspace. The psychological responses were analyzed using the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), and the psychophysiological responses were analyzed using electroencephalography (EEG) with a specific focus on alpha and beta brain frequencies in the frontal and parietal lobes. Findings indicated that the perceived restorativeness of the designed site increased for two of the three determined factors. Alpha brain frequencies were not significantly different when viewing the vacant versus the designed site; however, beta brain frequencies demonstrated a marginally significant effect of sex with male beta power spectral density decreasing when viewing the designed site and female beta brain frequencies increasing. This research suggests that redesigning a vegetated urban vacant site can positively impact perceived restorativeness and unveils a potential gender effect present in beta brain frequencies. Full article

Changing the spatial luminance distribution patterns has the potential to improve the restorative potential of indoor environments through spatial visual perception intervention, which is helpful to meet our growing need for psychological restoration and well-being. However, the efficiency, progress, and principles for improving the spatial luminance distribution of indoor environments have not been verified, and the reusable and restorative spatial luminance distribution patterns that can be applied to the restorative reserve levels created by the architectural configurations and dispositions of the different spaces have yet to be established. Using a living room environment as the typical space and a hotel room as the research subject, we conducted this study by setting up a control group for the assessment experiment, combining three subjective and objective measures: the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), the eye-movement test, and the case interview. The results showed the following. (1) The spatial luminance distribution of artificial lighting can improve the PRS score by 30.9%. (2) The spatial luminance distribution of artificial lighting improves the restorative perception potential, which negatively correlates with the restorative reserve level of the environment (the correlation coefficient values were −0.405, p < 0.01). (3) The spatial luminance distribution elicited two visual cognitive responses: visual attraction and visual load, with the former being positively correlated with restorative perception (the correlation coefficient values were 0.288, p < 0.01), while the latter was negatively correlated (the correlation coefficient values were −0.264, p < 0.01). (4) The visual cognitive conclusions of spatial luminance distribution including the six dimensions present the visual characteristics of the status quo in the restorative spatial luminance distribution of artificial lighting. Based on the findings, this study starts from the optimization of visual attraction and visual load by improving both the restorative level and the degree of restorative perception, proposing a restorative spatial luminance distribution pattern of artificial lighting applicable to environments with different restorative reserve levels. Full article

Many studies have proven that campus green space has healing effects, but there are few evaluation studies on the healing effects of a small-scale courtyard landscape on a high-density campus. This research comprehensively employs the method of semantic differential (SD method) and the perceived restorative scale (PRS) to construct an evaluation framework based on environmental preference and restorative evaluation in order to quantify the healing capability of small-scale campus landscapes. The findings demonstrate the following: (1) Plants close to or higher than human visual height, such as trees or shrubs, will lead to a better healing effect than lawns. An irregular layout of the plants can also bring a more beautiful aesthetic and better light than a monotonous layout, thus more strongly diverting people’s attention from pressure. (2) Users’ preferences for activity space do not depend on the scale of the activity space. (3) “Perceived quality” and “Experienced quality” represent the healing quality of the courtyard in terms of abstract feelings or atmospheres that are difficult to distinguish directly. In addition to expanding and deepening the concept of restorative space elements, this research provides some guidance for the design of healing courtyards in high-density campus environments. Full article

Inclusive design (ID) is a design process that ensures that all people, particularly marginalized groups, can use the environment. Inclusive design (ID) in architecture is based on accurate data related to user experiences where the users’ perception of the built environment demonstrates the optimal facilitation of their expectations, needs, and demands. Despite this, in studies about inclusive design and multisensory architecture, the perspective of visually impaired people (VIP) is still lacking, especially in accessing public spaces. To address this gap, this study aims to investigate how sighted and visually impaired people perceive an oasis settlement urban park’s physical environment and verify the similarities and differences between these two categories. The research was conducted by applying two approaches, one qualitative based on a series of field surveys and the other quantitative relying on in situ measurements of the physical dimensions of the environment. The main findings of this study show that visually impaired people deserve special consideration due to their varying abilities to perceive the surrounding environment. Furthermore, the results indicate that auditory environments are more perceptible to the visually impaired than the sighted. In contrast, findings from the analysis of the perceived restorativeness scale (PRS-11) show that sighted users of the park have a slightly higher average score than visually impaired users regarding its components of Fascination, Being-Away, Coherence, and Scope. According to the Semantic Differential Scale of Multi-Variable Evaluation of the Park Environment, there are no significant differences between park users’ perceptions of the park’s nature and the thermal environment. The conclusion suggests that to ensure users’ well-being, it is crucial to understand the different individual needs among groups of users and come up with innovative and all-inclusive solutions. Full article