Built Places That Are Mentally Refreshing
Insights into spaces that revitalize tired minds
Insights into spaces that revitalize tired minds
Residential street networks make a real difference in lives lived
Liu and colleagues evaluated the implications of scenting office spaces. They studied the “effects of ambient bergamot scent on the stress levels of office workers by exposing them to the scent while stressors persisted as the workers continued to work on the office tasks. . . . The change in heart rate variability revealed that bergamot scent increased stress among males but not for females. The reported pleasantness and comfort followed the same trend.
Bailey, Anderson, and Cox wanted to learn more about the psychological implications of walking. Their work “explores the mechanisms of active and passive leisure influence through real-time tracking of mental states while incurring a standard ‘dose’ of social media and walking. Results indicate that social media induces anxiety and mental focus, while walking enhances relaxation and meditative state.
Lee and Yoon studied the effects of natural design elements on the experiences of people waiting in healthcare emergency departments. They report their “findings offer empirical evidence for the positive impact of including natural elements in these waiting areas. We created four high-fidelity virtual environments that incorporated natural elements in three ways, i.e., the presence of plants, the use of nature images and natural materials, and a combination of those two, in addition to a controlled environment without natural elements.
Mental refreshment and energy levels linked
Acoustics driving design-related outcomes
Improving lives wherever it's used
Green spaces where people and nature flourish.
Hooyberg and colleagues studied human responses to being in different sorts of spaces via virtual reality and it seems likely that their findings can also be applied in other settings. The investigators report that “beaches caused lower breathing rates than urban environments and lower SCR [skin conductance responses] than green environments. . . . the heart rate, HF-HRV [high-frequency heart rate variability], and MAP [mean arterial pressure] did not react differently to the beach than to the urban and green environments. . . .