Nighttime lighting effects on perceived restoration depend on landscape type: evidence from classical garden landscapes and modern park landscapes

Background Urban green spaces can support perceived restoration, but nighttime responses may depend on how lighting interacts with landscape context. Previous research has focused mainly on daytime environments or treated nighttime lighting as an independent factor, leaving this interaction insufficiently understood. Methods A 2 × 2 between-participants experiment compared sampled classical-garden scenes from Suzhou and modern-park scenes from Xuzhou under natural nighttime light and scene-specific simulated artificial lighting. 200 participants were randomly assigned to four conditions (50 per condition), with each participant evaluating five images from their assigned condition. Self-reported responses were assessed using an adapted Short-version Revised Restoration Scale, and six observable landscape characteristics were rated by 15 experts. Trial-level linear mixed-effects models included participant and base-scene random intercepts. The primary analysis tested the landscape type × lighting interaction for the overall score. Results Across lighting conditions, the sampled classical-garden scenes had higher descriptive overall scores than the sampled modern-park scenes (7.14 ± 0.52 vs. 5.75 ± 0.42), although landscape type was confounded with city. The primary interaction was −0.544 points (95% CI [−0.792, −0.295], p < 0.001). In the sampled classical-garden scenes, artificial lighting was associated with lower overall scores than natural nighttime light (difference = −0.471, 95% CI [−0.647, −0.295], adjusted p < 0.001), whereas the corresponding contrast in the sampled modern-park scenes was small and uncertain (0.073, 95% CI [−0.103, 0.248]). Conclusion Nighttime lighting responses differed between the two sampled scene sets, suggesting that lighting should be evaluated in relation to landscape context. These findings concern self-reported responses to specific photographic scenes and do not establish general differences between classical gardens and modern parks or the effectiveness of particular lighting designs.