Exploring perceived oppressiveness of high-rise window views: A virtual reality assessment of planning measures and visual elements' influence

Under compact city policies, the dense configuration of buildings surrounding high-rise structures can obstruct window views, increasing perceptions of oppressiveness among occupants. While prior research has primarily focused on the impact of building forms and surrounding environments on perceived oppressiveness, there is limited investigation into how planning measures (such as building layout, building spacing, and surrounding trees) and visual element ratios (such as sky, grass, trees, foreground buildings, and background buildings) affect this perception. To address this gap, we used virtual reality (VR) technology to have 50 participants rate the oppressiveness of 24 visual scenes. Our findings indicated that staggered building layout, increased building spacing, and the presence of surrounding trees significantly reduced perceived oppressiveness. An ordinal logistic regression model was used to predict the impact of specific planning measures and viewing floor levels on perceived oppressiveness. Quantitative analysis revealed that increasing the ratio of sky and trees in window views mitigated perceived oppressiveness. Additionally, the ratio of built elements had a dual effect: enhancing foreground buildings exacerbated the perception of oppressiveness while increasing background buildings helped alleviate it. These results suggest that thoughtful planning and the strategic integration of natural visual elements can effectively reduce the perceived oppressiveness of window views in high-rise residential buildings. • There is a negative bivariate correlation between oppressiveness and preference. • The planning measures outside the window affect the sense of oppression. • The ordered logistic regression model predicts the probability of oppressiveness. • Increasing the sky ratio and tree ratio mitigates perceived oppressiveness. • Foreground and background building ratio has an opposite effect on oppressiveness.