INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN BUILT AND NATURAL WINDOW VIEWS, AND STUDENTS PERCEIVED RESTORATION USING VRITUAL REALITY

Abstract

This thesis explores the concept of perceived restorativeness in virtual window views, which have significant contributions to the field of landscape architecture and environmental psychology. It begins with a comprehensive literature review to define perceived restorativeness which lies on Attention Restoration Theory(ART). The main emphasis in literature is on the importance of four restorative factors: fascination, being away, extent, and compatibility. All these four factors contribute to an environment’s restorative quality.This study acknowledges the existing gaps regarding the impact of virtual views both built and natural environments on perceived restoration within design studio , because the studio environments are critical in landscape architecture, architecture, and all the fields related to design. This study wants to fill this gap. In terms of research questions, all the research questions are designed to explore how different virtual window views affect perceived restoration, and whether variation in the natural and built environment affects that restorative quality. In the methodology chapter, the process of collecting data from participants for data analysis is described.45 participants responded to the perceived restorativeness scale (PRS-16), after displaying virtual window views from the School of Architecture Design Studio. All the responses were analyzed by using paired t-test and ANOVA to measure the restorative quality of different window views. Findings from data analysis indicate that not all virtual window views make the same restorative impact on participants. A significant variation was observed within and between categories of built and nature. Although all the nature views have significant restorative quality, the plaza as a virtual built window view perceived restorative benefit as well. This study makes an important contribution to investigating the restorative quality of virtual views in educational settings.