Comparison of the restorative quality of green spaces between the evening and daytime

摘要

Research studies on the restorative quality of environments have grown rapidly; however, the majority of existingliterature focuses on daytime landscapes, while the restorative quality of evening landscapes is less studied. Inparticular, the landscape characteristics and/or lighting features that play an essential role in improving therestorative quality of nightscapes are unknown. To address these gaps, 12 urban green spaces were selected as studysites and the same scene at each site was photographed during the day and evening. The restorative quality and 14landscape characteristics of all photographs were evaluated quantitatively, and four lighting features of photographstaken during the evening were measured. Statistical analysis indicated that: (a) the restorative quality of daytimelandscapes was significantly higher than that of evening landscapes; (b) abundant colours and natural vegetationsuggested higher restorative quality during the daytime and (c) increasing the brightness of lighting and settinglighting sources in the distant view of visitors could improve the restorative quality of evening landscapes. Combinedwith the previous literature, the results suggest that lighting has the ability to redesign nightscapes, whichconsequently improves their restorative quality by concealing the less restorative features and illuminating the keyelements to promote mental restoration.