Fatemeh Khozaei, Maryam Lesan, Nadia Ayub, Qamar Ul Islam,
Volume 30, Issue 1 (6-2020)
Abstract
Students’ residence halls have been studied repeatedly during the last decades from various perspectives (eg satisfaction). However, our knowledge is very limited in terms of students’ emotions towards various residence hall interior and exterior spaces. Besides, very little study exists on the impact of homelike furniture on students’ emotions. The question driving this research is whether the replacement of institutional furniture with home like furniture affects students’ emotional states towards their residence hall? The research follows a mixed, multi-staged methodology. Stage one used structured interviews of students about what might make a residence hall similar to home environments. This second stage evaluates students’ emotions toward their current residence halls (with institutional furniture) and modified images of the same place with homelike furniture. We used SAM to evaluate students’ emotional reactions in terms of valence, arousal, and dominance. The findings of the study suggests that home like residence halls significantly affect students’ positive emotions. The most positive emotions (valence, arousal, and dominance) were reported on kitchenette, corridor, and yard spaces and no significant differences were found on in-room décor.
Fatemeh Khozaei, Maryam Lesan, Mahdieh Hosseini Nia, Prof Ahmad Sanusi Hassan,
Volume 35, Issue 4 (11-2025)
Abstract
This study aims to examine how the Burden of COVID-19 (BUC), depression (DEP), and stress (STR) are related to soundscape preferences (City Voice/traffic, Music, Voice of Nature/birdsong) and to distil design implications for pandemic-resilient urban parks. This cross-sectional online study with N = 323 university students used a 60-s 3D animation of a constant green pedestrian way with three randomized audio conditions (City Voice, Music, Voice of Nature). Psychological variables were assessed with DASS-21 subscales (DEP, STR) and a 10-item BUC index. To minimize loudness confounds, audio was loudness-normalized (BS.1770-5) and participants completed a brief headphone screening before trials. Analyses reported Cronbach’s α, Pearson correlations, exact p values, and FDR control. The study showed that BUC correlated positively with Music (r = .288, p < .001), DEP (r = .213, p < .001), and STR (r = .186, p = .001), but not with City Voice or Voice of Nature. DEP correlated positively with Music (r = .174, p = .002) and Voice of Nature (r = .492, p < .001). STR correlated positively with Voice of Nature
(r = .377, p < .001). City Voice showed no reliable associations with BUC, DEP, or STR. All effects with p ≤ .002 remained after FDR control. Park and streetscape projects should buffer traffic noise, foreground pleasant natural acoustics (e.g., water features, habitat for birds/insects), and consider opt-in, curated music zones during crises to support self-regulation and recovery. Sound-attentive design can extend restorative experiences to communities with limited access to large green spaces, supporting equitable mental-health resilience during public-health emergencies. However, findings should be interpreted with caution given the student sample, correlational design, and single-item soundscape preference measures. The study isolates the auditory contribution to restoration under controlled loudness in a virtual park, links pandemic burden to sound preferences, and translates results into actionable soundscape guidelines for pandemic-ready urban design.
