Developing evening landscapes: A comparison of the restorative quality of urban green spaces between the evening and daytime

Research on the restorative quality of environments has grown rapidly, however the majority of existing literature focuses on daytime landscapes, while the restorative quality of evening landscapes is less studied. In particular, the landscape characteristics and(or) lighting features that play an essential role in improving the restorative quality of nightscapes are unknown. To address these gaps, 12 urban green spaces were selected as the study sites and the same scene at each site was photographed during the day and evening. The restorative quality and 14 landscape characteristics of all photographs were evaluated quantitatively, and four lighting features of photographs taken during the evening were measured. Statistical analysis indicated that: (1) the restorative quality of daytime landscapes was significantly higher than that of evening landscapes; (2) abundant colors and natural vegetation suggested higher restorative quality during the daytime; and (3) increasing the brightness of lighting and setting lighting sources in the distant view of visitors could improve the restorative quality of evening landscapes. Combined with the previous literature, the results suggest that lighting has the ability to redesign nightscapes, which consequently improves their restorative quality by concealing the less restorative features and illuminating the key elements to promote mental restoration.