Effects of University Campus Landscapes on Learning Quality of Students

An important aspect of designing landscapes of university campuses has always been promoting the quality of learning among students. Most universities in Iran have been constructed in a way to address this point as much as possible.Therefore, it may be worth to have a closer look at the real effects of campus landscape designs on the quality of students’ learning abilities. The purpose of the current research is to review and analyze the theories of landscape designing particularly the Attention Restoration Theory (ART) and examine their manifestations in some of Tehran’s university campuses. The focus, however, is on Shahid Rajaee University. A further theory that has been studied in the present research is Gibson’s Affordance theory which, of course, still needs to be thoroughly examined through further investigations
For this research, about 150 pictures from views, vistas and scenes of Shahid Rajaee campus landscape were analyzed. Eventually, 52 pictures were picked to study the four parameters of Attention Restoration Theory (Being Away, Extent, Fascination and Complexity) as well as ART’s theory matrix (preference matrix). In conclusion, a new matrix named ‘design and preference’ was presented which has been developed based on preference matrix. This new matrix manifests the quality of perceived image in minimum four degrees. It helps to show the quality of landscape designs from the viewpoint of designers, campus managers and students.
As the research parameters in Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University (SRTTU) campus indicate, an informed design of landscape elements on the campuses can help promote tired mind. However, making an informed landscape on the semi natural environments such as university campuses, in a way that could lead to the restoration of mental focus in both academic and administrative affairs needs more research and consideration in psychology and ecology approaches.
The next step in this research deals with an assessment of students’ perception of the desirability of each point (vista or scene) of view of the university campuses. For this, photo questionnaires are used to obtain the required data. This is a topic that could be used for future researches. Also, more researches need to be carried out over Gibson's theory about the environmental features of university campus and it could be a perfect subject for further research.
Finally, the main aim of this research is to determine key parameters that could be utilized for promoting the current understanding of landscape designs in campuses of universities and accordingly enhance the students’ learning abilities.