ENHANCING PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH THROUGH BIOPHILIC DESIGN: THE INFLUENCE OF SEA VIEWS ON UNDERGROUND OCCUPANTS

19th WORLD CONFERENCE OF THE ASSOCIATED RESEARCH CENTRES FOR THE URBAN UNDERGROUND SPACE, Belgrade, Serbia, November 4-7, 2025. (Paper No: 4.9.119,  pp. 740-748)

 

AUTOR(I) / AUTHOR(S): Isabelle Chan, Samuel Twum-Ampofo

 

Download Full Pdf   

DOI:  10.46793/ACUUS2025.4.9.119

SAŽETAK / ABSTRACT:

Occupying underground spaces can be associated with poor psychological health. This is due to the unique constraints of the environment, which typically include isolation from the outside world, risk of poor ventilation, and anxiety related to potential safety risks within these spaces. While exposure to nature, such as sea views, is associated with positive psychological health outcomes, little is known if similar effects can be achieved by integrating sea view elements as visual stimuli in underground spaces. In this study, we investigated the impact of virtual sea views on psychological health and cognition by exposing participants to a simulated static sea view, a dynamic sea view, and a control room with no sea view. Participants completed cognitive tasks under each condition, and their subjective emotional responses were collected using questionnaires. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare participants’ health state for each virtual scenario before and during the cognitive tests. Kruskal-Wallis tests were applied to conduct inter-group comparisons. The results from the psychological state assessment showed that static and dynamic sea views can protect against negative emotional shifts. For the cognitive tests, the inverse efficiency score assessment revealed superior efficiency across different tests for different environmental conditions. Further analysis using the Mann-Whitney test with Bonferroni correction suggests that both static sea view (IES = 2.22) and non-sea view conditions (IES = 1.06) were effective for the Stroop test (working memory). However, the IES scores favor the non-sea view control group. 

KLJUČNE REČI / KEYWORDS:

Psychological Health, Biophilia, Sea view, Virtual Reality, Underground Space

PROJEKAT / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

This work was supported by the General Research Fund (Grant No.17203920) under the Research Grant Council, HKSAR.

LITERATURA / REFERENCES:

  • Chan, I. Y., Twum-Ampofo, S., Ababio, B. K., Ghansah, F. A., & Li, S. (2025). Towards a whole process engineering approach for enhancing physical and psychological health in underground environments: A systematic review. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 161, 106530.
  • Chan, I. Y., Dong, Z., & Chen, H. (2024). Impacts of connections to the outside on underground space occupants’ psychophysiological health: A virtual reality-based experimental approach. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 147, 105675. 
  • Huber, M.A., 2014. Towards a new, dynamic concept of health: Its operationalisation and use in public health and healthcare and in evaluating health effects of food.
  • Dunleavy, G., Bajpai, R., Tonon, A. C., Cheung, K. L., Thach, T. Q., Rykov, Y., Soh, C. K., de Vries, H., Car, J., & Christopoulos, G. (2020). Prevalence of psychological distress and its association with perceived indoor environmental quality and workplace factors in under and aboveground workplaces. Building and Environment, 175, 106799. 
  • Ringstad, A. J. (1994). Perceived danger and the design of underground facilities for public use. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 9(1), 5–7. 
  • Wang, C., Zhang, F., Wang, J., Doyle, J. K., Hancock, P. A., Mak, C. M., & Liu, S. (2021). How indoor environmental quality affects occupants’ cognitive functions: A systematic review. Building and environment, 193, 107647.
  • Ulrich, R. S., Simons, R. F., Losito, B. D., Fiorito, E., Miles, M. A., & Zelson, M. (1991). Stress recovery during exposure to natural and urban environments. Journal of environmental psychology, 11(3), 201-230.
  • Schertz, K. E., & Berman, M. G. (2019). Understanding nature and its cognitive benefits. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(5), 496-502.
  • Britton, E., Kindermann, G., Domegan, C., & Carlin, C. (2020). Blue care: A systematic review of blue space interventions for health and wellbeing. Health promotion international, 35(1), 50-69.
  • Dempsey, S., Devine, M. T., Gillespie, T., Lyons, S., & Nolan, A. (2018). Coastal blue space and depression in older adults. Health & place, 54, 110-117.
  • Wheeler, B. W., White, M., Stahl-Timmins, W., & Depledge, M. H. (2012). Does living by the coast improve health and wellbeing? Health & place, 18(5), 1198-1201.
  • Grellier, J., White, M. P., Albin, M., Bell, S., Elliott, L. R., Gascón, M., … & Fleming, L. E. (2017). BlueHealth: a study programme protocol for mapping and quantifying the potential benefits to public health and well-being from Europe’s blue spaces. BMJ open, 7(6), e016188.
  • Gascon, M., Zijlema, W., Vert, C., White, M. P., & Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J. (2017). Outdoor blue spaces, human health and well-being: A systematic review of quantitative studies. International journal of hygiene and environmental health, 220(8), 1207-1221.
  • Severin, M. I., Raes, F., Notebaert, E., Lambrecht, L., Everaert, G., & Buysse, A. (2022). A qualitative study on emotions experienced at the coast and their influence on well-being. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 902122. 
  • Nutsford, D., Pearson, A. L., Kingham, S., & Reitsma, F. (2016). Residential exposure to visible blue space (but not green space) associated with lower psychological distress in a capital city. Health & place, 39, 70-78.
  • Mainous III, A. G., Tanner, R. J., Rahmanian, K. P., Jo, A., & Carek, P. J. (2019). Effect of sedentary lifestyle on cardiovascular disease risk among healthy adults with body mass indexes 18.5 to 29.9 kg/m². The American Journal of Cardiology, 123(5), 764–768. 
  • Raud, L., Westerhausen, R., Dooley, N., & Huster, R. J. (2020). Differences in unity: The go/no-go and stop signal tasks rely on different mechanisms. NeuroImage, 210, 116582.
  • Scarpina, F., & Tagini, S. (2017). The stroop color and word test. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 557.
  • Meule, A. (2017). Reporting and interpreting working memory performance in n-back tasks. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 352.
  • Roberts, A. C., Christopoulos, G. I., Car, J., Soh, C. K., & Lu, M. (2016). Psycho-biological factors associated with underground spaces: What can the new era of cognitive neuroscience offer to their study?. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 55, 118-134.
  • Yin, J., Arfaei, N., MacNaughton, P., Catalano, P. J., Allen, J. G., & Spengler, J. D. (2019). Effects of biophilic interventions in office on stress reaction and cognitive function: A randomized crossover study in virtual reality. Indoor air, 29(6), 1028-1039.
  • Yeom, S., Kim, H., Hong, T., Ji, C., & Lee, D. E. (2022). Emotional impact, task performance and task load of green walls exposure in a virtual environment. Indoor air, 32(1), e12936.
  • Tan, Z., Roberts, A. C., Lee, E. H., Kwok, K. W., Car, J., Soh, C. K., & Christopoulos, G. (2020). Transitional areas affect perception of workspaces and employee well-being: A study of underground and above-ground workspaces. Building and Environment, 179, 106840.
  • Higashiyama, A., & Kitano, S. (1991). Perceived size and distance of persons in natural outdoor settings: The effects of familiar size. Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient.
  • Gilinsky, A. S. (1951). Perceived size and distance in visual space. Psychological review, 58(6), 460.
  • Townsend, J. T., & Ashby, F. G. (2014). Methods of modeling capacity in simple processing systems. In Cognitive theory (pp. 199-239). Psychology Press.
  • Bruyer, R., & Brysbaert, M. (2011). Combining speed and accuracy in cognitive psychology: Is the inverse efficiency score (IES) a better dependent variable than the mean reaction time (RT) and the percentage of errors (PE)? Psychologica Belgica, 51(1).
  • Ulrich, R. S. (1983). Aesthetic and affective response to natural environment. In Behavior and the natural environment (pp. 85-125). Boston, MA: Springer US.
  • Russell, J. A. (1989). Measures of emotion. In The measurement of emotions (pp. 83-111). Academic Press.
  • Ting, H. Y., & Bahauddin, A. (2022). The impact of blue space in the interior on mental health. ARTEKS: Jurnal Teknik Arsitektur, 7(1), 53-60.
  • Tashiro, A., Kogure, M., Nagata, S., Itabashi, F., Tsuchiya, N., Hozawa, A., & Nakaya, T. (2021). Coastal exposure and residents’ mental health in the affected areas by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 16751.