Study on the Relationship between Restoration Benefit and Visual Satisfaction of LONG-PLAN’s Indoor Vertical Greenery

This study investigates the psychological restorative benefits of indoor vertical greenery and its relationship with visual satisfaction. Taking the Solar Decathlon China 2018 champion project “LONG-PLAN” as the experimental field, we conducted a questionnaire survey to evaluate the effect of indoor vertical greenery on creating a restorative environment. Then we further studied the relationship between the restorative environmental factors and visual satisfaction of indoor vertical greenery. The results show that: (1) Indoor vertical greenery has a positive impact on the subjective restoration of respondents (the average value of PRS = 4.150). (2) The three factors of “being away,” “fascination and compatibility,” and the “extent” of environmental restoration have a significant positive correlation with the visual satisfaction of indoor vertical greenery (the correlation coefficient values are 0.403, 0.627, and 0.425, respectively, p < 0.01). (3) In the stepwise regression analysis of the three factors and the visual satisfaction of indoor vertical greenery, only “fascination and compatibility” show a significant positive correlation (the regression coefficient = 0.753, p < 0.01). (4) The visual satisfaction of indoor vertical greenery has a significantly positive impact on environmental recovery (the regression coefficient = 0.459, p < 0.01). The study shows that indoor vertical greenery improves visual satisfaction and contributes to a restorative environment. In addition, the study provides further evidence of the mutual facilitation between restorative benefits and visual satisfaction.

Walkability Compass—A Space Syntax Solution for Comparative Studies

The ongoing discourse on air quality and climate changes positions walkability as a pivotal point of sustainable urban planning. Urban studies examine a city’s walkability in terms of pedestrian flows, design qualities, and street network topology, leaving walkability comparative frameworks under development. Building on the space syntax theory, this research introduces a “walkability compass”, a four spatial indicator-designed tool for city walkability assessment and comparison. The tools are being tested on eight Baltic region cities: Vilnius, Kaunas (LT), Malmö (SE), Riga (LV), Tallinn (ES), Gdansk, Bialystok, Lublin (PL). The nine-step method framework integrates four indexes: Gravity (Gr), Reach (Re), Straightness (St), and Population density (Pop). The “walkability compass” results reveal significant Re and St correlations;thus, visual and cultural aspects become the main factors in pedestrian-friendly cities. The spatial pattern typology has matched similar cities (Malmö and Kaunas) to work closely on sustainable urban planning development. In all case studies, specific walkability zones were mapped, but the Gr zones turned out to be the most compact ones (the Z-score of Gr was ranged from 355.4 to 584;other indexes oscillated between 209.4 and 542.6). The walkability mapping results are publicly shared via WebMap to stimulate the participatory discussion on case studies cities further development.

Playful Metaphors for Narrative-Driven E-Learning

Featured ApplicationThe presented narrative-driven technique of storyfication can be used in online education to transform e-learning courses into engaging, motivating stories.A team of e-learning specialists was assigned the mission to design and develop seven short e-learning modules for young learners on popular topics with a prime focus on social-emotional learning. However, these courses had to be produced on a limited budget, hosted in a Moodle platform, and be delivered for free in asynchronous only mode. Hence, a playful method of meaningful storyfication was applied in e-learning to captivate attention and spark interest. In each module, a fictional story or metaphorical challenge with playful elements was introduced where learners were invited to assist the story’s protagonists or become the heroes themselves by engaging with content. As the role of teachers is vital for the adoption of technology-based solutions in education, a mixed method evaluation was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of the method. Forty-two educators reviewed the courses, answered a questionnaire and participated in interviews. Results indicated that participants highly appreciated the narrative aspects, visual, and auditory elements rendering the e-learning courses effective for the target audience. This article can assist educators, distance education designers and developers to adopt a playful mindset and learn how to integrate practically storytelling elements into their classroom-based and online teaching.