The Influence of Window Characteristics on Occupant Well-Being and Perception in Workplace Environments: A Review

Windows serve as critical interfaces between indoor and outdoor environments, shaping occupants' visual comfort, cognitive performance, and psychological well-being, particularly in workplace environments. This paper reviews recent interdisciplinary research across architecture, environmental psychology, and building science to examine how physical window attributes, such as size, window-to-wall ratio (WWR), fenestration, and shaping, and their resulting environmental performance, such as visual openness, daylight, and view composition, affect human perception, emotion, and stress recovery in both real and virtual settings. Well-designed windows introduce natural light and landscape views, enhancing psychological comfort, reducing stress, and increasing overall satisfaction with indoor spaces. Advances in immersive virtual simulations, visualization techniques, and physiological measurement tools have enabled more precise and objective evaluations of these effects. However, current research still lacks standardized quantitative measures and longitudinal evidence. Therefore, this paper proposes a multi-stage impact model to link specific window design features, their underlying psychological and physiological mechanisms, and their contribution to occupants' overall well-being through mental health outcomes such as stress recovery and emotional regulation. This review emphasizes the need for integrative and multisensory approaches to better understand how window design influences psychological restoration, emotional regulation, and overall well-being in contemporary built environments.