Urban cultural heritage is mentally restorative: an experimental study based on multiple psychophysiological measures

Wang, ShuSheng; Xu, Yuqian; Yang, Xinyi; Zhang, Yuan; Yan, Pei; Jiang, Yuan; Wang, Kai

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1132052

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 38 publications

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“…Due to the high potential of fascination, places with high historical and architectural value can also provide high restorative effects ( Weber and Trojan, 2018 ). This is also confirmed by the recent studies of Wang et al (2023) on typical cultural heritage sites in China and Masullo et al (2021b) on Italian cloisters and Turkish Khan. For Galindo and Hidalgo (2005) and Hidalgo et al (2006) , cultural-historical and recreational places were considered more attractive than panoramic places and housing areas.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Exploring the restorative benefits of work in smart working structures on vacations in small villages

Maffei,

Ciervo,

Marzocchi

et al. 2023

Front. Psychol.

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IntroductionProcesses of redefinition of work, already in place in the pre-pandemic era, with the advent of COVID-19, have become widely required. A “model of work” that uses new technologies and the development of existing ones to improve workers’ performance and satisfaction has emerged. Smart working has changed how people work and, as a result, spaces must also change to support them. The use of prefabricated movable buildings (PMB) could represent an opportunity to create smart (and co-) working spaces in a regenerative contest. Small villages with historical, architectural, and naturalistic elements and slow-life features are potential platforms where vacation and work could merge easily. This paper aims to establish if working in movable offices, like the PMBs, which provide a high level of visual and acoustics interaction with the surroundings, and which is positioned in small villages’ squares, can affect workers’ sense of restoration and working performance.MethodsIn a laboratory setting, in the SENS i-Lab, a videowall and a 3D spatial audio system were used to compare, in terms of restorativeness and self-reported cognitive performance, the effects of a high-rise building context of a City Business District (CBD), i.e. the control scenario, and of two typical squares of small Italian villages with historic buildings, without (HIS) and with water elements (HIS-W).ResultsThe findings of the experimental sessions showed that when working in close contact (visual and auditory) with historical or water elements, where life flows slowly, workers perceived a higher sense of restoration while job performance was unchanged.DiscussionImplementing smart working policies in small villages that encourage the use of energy-efficient prefabricated movable buildings and that offer a high level of visual and acoustic interaction with the surrounding environment may represent a promising strategy to foster the development of the local economy and contrast the depopulation of small villages, improving the worker well-being and the reducing the impact of their activities of the environment.

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