Kent and Schiavon studied items seen through windows. They report that when they used images “to represent window views. . . . results showed that people are more satisfied when features are far away. . . . occupants prefer urban features to be viewed from a distance, whereas this same recommendation does not apply for nature.. . . While distant visual content has the additional benefit of providing visual relief, it may not always be possible to provide these types of window views. If designers are not able to provide distant content in the window view due to barriers imposed by site-selection (e.g. in a city-centre), a countermeasure could be to promote window view quality by integrating nature (e.g. trees and plants) nearby. However, this does not necessarily imply that nature should be viewed as close as possible in the window view as its content might then obstruct other desirable attributes needed in the view (e.g. the sky).”
Michael Kent and Stefano Schiavon. 2020. “Evaluation of the Effect of Landscape Distance Seen in Window Views on Visual Satisfaction.” Building and Environment, vol. 183, 107160, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107160
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.