Sit down and rest: Use of virtual reality to evaluate preferences and mental restoration in urban park pavilions

Natural experiences in urban parks have a positive impact on the well-being and quality of life of people living in urban settings. Thus far, studies focused on urban parks have primarily surveyed general urban park spaces. There is a lack of research on specific rest environment settings, especially for leisure facilities such as pavilions. This study used virtual reality (VR) to create a simulation of people sitting in a pavilion, to evaluate the preferences and mental restoration of nine pavilions in Tokyo (N=61). The results showed that VR viewing effectively promoted mental restoration. The enclosure of the pavilion did not significantly affect people's preferences and perceived mental restoration in the environment setting. Moreover, the regression analysis revealed that the prospect and serene dimensions significantly influenced preferences; for restoration, the dimensions of “richness in species” and “serene” were significant predictors. Results indicate that providing visitors with spaces to sit, relax, socialize, read, and view the scenery could be beneficial. Urban park managers could consider adding people's preferred elements in these resting environments to create a generalized restorative environment setting. The results also suggest that VR can be used to simulate different resting environments for relaxation and restoration, as an alternative approach to experience nature.