Landscape design criteria for creating restorative environment

People experience mental fatigue when they engage in extended periods of mental work and effort. In such a state, accomplishing tasks is difficult because it is difficult to focus one's attention on them at all times. For example on a daily basis, university students face significant challenges in sustaining their capacity to pay attention. Students are involved in numerous activities throughout the day that require them to draw on their attentional capacity - a capacity that often fatigues before the students have completed their work for the day. Past research demonstrate that taking breaks in restorative environments allows students to restore their capacity to pay attention and thus recover from mental fatigue. In compliance with attention restoration theory, this study provides evidence about the perceived restorativeness of different landscape elements in a challenging setting - a dormitory complex on a major university campus, a place where students spend a huge portion of their time. Results of this study clearly indicate that water and art effectively foster restoration.