Can Historical Environments Rival Natural Environments? An Empirical Study on the Impact of Campus Environment Types on College Students’ Mental Health

Contemporary college students face mounting psychological challenges under high academic pressure, and the design and functionality of campus environments may play a critical role in psychological recovery. Emerging evidence suggests that restorative benefits can be derived not only from natural environments but also from historically built settings rich in cultural narratives—can these historical environments compare to natural ones? This study surveyed how different campus environments affect students’ physiological (heart rate variability, HRV) and psychological (Profile of Mood States, POMS; Perceived Restorative Scale, PRS) outcomes. During the final exam week, 38 college students were exposed to four environments using a within-subject crossover design: an ordinary built environment, a natural landscape environment, a historical built environment with intentional historical narratives, and a built environment with unintentional historical narratives. The results indicated that the historical built environment with designed historical narratives provided restorative benefits comparable to those of natural landscape environments by enhancing HRV and improving mood states. These findings suggest that a historical built environment with intentional explicit historical interpretation can offer rehabilitation benefits similar to natural landscape environments, providing a practical pathway for high-density urban areas with small-scale historical campus settings to achieve effective restorative outcomes.