Morphology, Openness, and Culture: A Field Experiment on Restorative Psychophysiology in Multi-Ethnic Urban Neighborhoods

Restorative environment research has overwhelmingly privileged naturalness and greenness, neglecting morphological determinants and situated socio-cultural context. To redress this lacuna, we implemented a 3 (building layout) × 3 (visual openness) full-factorial field experiment across three residential sites in Urumqi, China. Employing a between-subjects protocol, Han and Uyghur residents completed 10 min free-viewing exposures, with perceived restorativeness (PRS-8), affect (PANAS-10), and physiological markers (baseline-normalized change rates) assessed. Building layout significantly modulated short-term cardiac autonomic recovery (heart rate, heart rate variability). Ethnic background, operationalized as a situated socio-cultural grouping variable, independently predicted heart rate variability (SDNN) and perceived restorativeness. Visual openness exhibited null psychological main effects yet significantly predicted peripheral physiological arousal (skin conductance level, skin temperature). Notably, positive affect manifested a significant three-way interaction (layout × openness × ethnicity), evidencing that visual openness acquires affective salience only under specific morphological and socio-cultural configurations, despite its non-significant psychological main effect. These findings indicate that residential morphology furnishes the macro-scale spatial context for immediate restoration, whereas visual openness operates as a micro-scale perceptual cue whose affective and restorative meaning is contingent upon morphological context and socio-cultural background. This study furnishes field-based evidence advocating the integration of macro-scale layout, micro-scale openness, and situated socio-cultural context in restorative residential landscape design.