Aesthetics and Affordances in a Favourite Place: On the Interactional Use of Environments for Restoration

Abstract

Research indicates that nature offers many physical and mental health benefits, including restoration – or recovery from mental fatigue. However, questions remain about what exactly in one's environment is experienced as restorative and why. Bridging environmental aesthetics, environmental psychology and cultural studies, this study establishes a connection between landscape and mindscape as seen, for instance, in the ways in which an orderly environment is interpreted as an orderly state of mind and vice versa. Using data drawn from a qualitative survey targeting expatriate Finns, the article mobilises content analysis to interpret the results and concludes that a ‘favourite place’ is aesthetically appealing, enables actions that are experienced as restorative and is as much an interpretation of a space as a physical place.

Keywords

Aesthetic experience favourite place environmental aesthetics environmental preference restoration

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