Visual landscape quality of planting composition towards students’ well-being / Norizan Mt Akhir

Previous studies found the significance of planting composition to have a positive influence on visual landscape quality and wellbeing. Although many studies have evaluated planting composition aspects on public urban green spaces, only a few have investigated the effects in the university setting. In the literature, it is essential to evaluate campus landscapes since the relationship between people and campus environments is often intimate when individuals encounter the place they visit every day. However, campus design was primarily concerned with structures, with little emphasis being placed on landscapes. Campus landscape design has a significant impact on students. Students frequently select an institution based on their first impression of a campus. This study examines the perception of visual landscape quality of planting composition in relationship to student well-being. A photo-based questionnaire survey employing 51 landscape planting photos from Universiti Putra Malaysia was used to acquire quantitative data. Universiti Putra Malaysia is the first public university to participate in the UI GreenMatric World University Ranking, where it has been ranked at the top in Malaysia. The sample with 319 participants readily participate in this study and according to G*Power statistic calculation, the sample is sufficient for this study. In the survey questionnaire, students ranked 51 images from ‘strongly dislike’ to ‘strongly like’. The survey data were analysed by SPSS version23 and Smart PLS-SEM to interpret the findings. The results indicate that students prefer images with complexity arrangement, moderate density, and natural features of plants. While compared with openness and mysterious characteristics which indicate disliked images. Information Processing theory is mainly referred to understand why people prefer such environments and how comfortable people are in one place. This research focuses on the development model of visual landscape quality that can serve to enlighten future landscape planting practices towards students’ well-being on campus. In future planning and designing of campuses, these recommendations can help to enhance the visual quality and usability of campus landscapes. Finally, the limitations of this study were discussed and some recommendations for future landscape preference studies were provided.