While the existing research has extensively explored the impact of urban green spaces on residents’ well-being, studies specifically focusing on waterfront sports buildings remain scarce. This study examines how the combined effects of built environment characteristics in waterfront sports facilities enhance user satisfaction through psychological mechanisms. Based on survey data from 721 users across nine major waterfront sports complexes in China, we find that (1) four social function dimensions (social interaction, accessibility, safety, and multifunctionality) show significant positive correlations with satisfaction; (2) place attachment mediates these relationships. These findings validate the importance of integrating water-oriented design principles with community needs, offering both theoretical contributions to human–water interaction studies and practical implications for urban blue space (defined as visible water features including rivers, lakes, and coastal areas) development.

With the rise of green building and biophilic design, how sports venues enhance users’ place attachment through natural design features has become a critical interdisciplinary research topic in architecture and environmental psychology. This study adopts an integrated perspective of environmental psychology and architectural psychology to investigate the impact mechanism of natural design features (natural visibility, integration, and interactivity) on place attachment. Using a maximum likelihood-based structural equation model with a sample of 1022 users of waterside sports venues, this research pioneers the construction and validation of a parallel mediation model involving nature connectedness and biophilia. The findings reveal that (1) natural visibility, integration, and interactivity all significantly and positively influence place attachment; (2) nature connectedness mediates the relationship between natural design features and place attachment; and (3) biophilia also mediates the effect of natural design features on place attachment. This study makes a groundbreaking contribution by uncovering the dual-path “perception-emotion” mechanism through which natural design elements influence users’ psychological responses. The results provide empirical support for the refined application of nature-embedded strategies in architectural design and offer direct guidance for enhancing the social sustainability of high-density urban waterfront public spaces.

Although previous studies have extensively explored the relationship between urban green spaces and residents’ well-being, research on how nature-based sports venues enhance urban well-being through multiple emotional mechanisms remains relatively limited. Drawing on environmental psychology, place attachment theory, and the principles of biophilic design, this study constructs a dual-mediation model incorporating Connectedness to Nature (CN) and Place Attachment (PA) to examine the pathways through which natural design features—including Natural Visibility (NV), Spatial Integration (SI), and Human–Nature Interactivity (HNI)—influence individuals’ urban well-being. Using ten representative nature-integrated sports venues in China as research sites, a total of 856 valid questionnaires were collected, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied for empirical analysis. The results show that (1) NV, SI, and HNI all exert significant positive effects on CN and PA; (2) CN significantly promotes both PA and Urban Well-being (UWB); (3) PA has a significant positive effect on UWB; and (4) both CN and PA serve as significant mediators between natural design features and UWB, with an evident serial mediation effect from CN to PA. These findings reveal the multilayered psychological mechanisms through which nature-based sports venues enhance residents’ well-being, enrich the theoretical framework of nature-oriented design and urban sustainability, and provide empirical evidence for the health-oriented and emotion-responsive design of urban sports facilities.

The application of multi-camera systems has enabled the capture of basketball players’ dynamic poses, providing valuable data support for coaches and analysts. However, numerous challenges still exist in practical applications. Firstly, in complex basketball game scenarios, particularly when players are moving quickly and experiencing occlusion, accurately extracting player poses remains highly challenging. Secondly, current methods lack effective spatio-temporal feature fusion when processing multi-camera data, making it difficult to fully capture the dynamic relationships between different viewpoints. This deficiency results in insufficient accuracy and stability in pose estimation. To address these issues, this paper proposes a multi-task learning model that combines local feature enhancement and multi-camera spatio-temporal feature fusion (LFEMSFF). First, the Local Feature Enhancement module utilizes a graph convolutional network (GCN) to extract detailed local player movements, such as limb bending and joint angles. This improves the model’s ability to capture complex pose variations and enhances its adaptability to occlusions and rapid movements. Next, the multi-camera spatio-temporal feature fusion module integrates data from different viewpoints using a spatio-temporal transformer network. This module considers not only the spatial information from each viewpoint but also leverages temporal sequence relationships to enhance the spatio-temporal continuity and resolution of the data, thereby capturing the dynamic changes in player movements more effectively. Finally, the multi-task learning module integrates the outputs from the previous two modules, optimizing both pose classification and keypoint localization tasks to ensure the accuracy and robustness of pose prediction. Experimental results show that the proposed model significantly improves pose detection accuracy and stability compared to existing methods on the NBA2K, Human3.6M and Sports-1 datasets.

With the increasing depth of research on built environments, theories of restorative environments and concepts of biophilic design have garnered widespread attention in the field of architecture. Based on Attention Restoration Theory (ART) and Flow Theory, this study systematically investigates how the architectural environment of aquatic centers influences users’ learning engagement in sports through psychological mechanisms. Analysis of cross-sectional data from 865 users revealed that all four core dimensions of restorative environments (being away, extent, fascination, and compatibility) significantly positively affect users’ learning engagement in aquatic centers. Psychological flow was found to mediate the relationship between these restorative dimensions and learning engagement. Building on previous research, this study constructs a theoretical framework of “restorative design–flow experience–learning behavior”, integrating the architectural features of aquatic centers with users’ psychological experiences. This approach addresses the gap in existing research where architectural elements and user psychological experiences have been studied in isolation, providing a theoretical basis for optimizing user experience through environmental interventions in sports architecture. The findings extend the application of environmental psychology in sports architecture and offer practical guidance for designing aquatic environments that promote learning engagement.

With increasing interest in nature-based and biophilic built environments, understanding how users perceive natural characteristics embedded in sports venues and how these perceptions are associated with psychological experiences and behavioural intentions has become an important research topic. However, limited studies have examined the psychological mechanisms through which perceived nature-based characteristics of sports venue design are related to users’ revisit intention. Based on restorative environment theory and place attachment theory, this study investigates the relationship between nature-based sports venue design and revisit intention from a user-perceived built environment perspective, with a particular focus on the mediating roles of perceived restorativeness and place attachment. A questionnaire survey was conducted among university students in Shandong Province, China, and 623 valid responses were obtained. Structural equation modelling and bootstrap analysis were employed to examine the proposed relationships. The results showed that perceived nature-based sports venue design characteristics were positively associated with revisit intention, perceived restorativeness, and place attachment. Perceived restorativeness was positively associated with both place attachment and revisit intention, while place attachment was positively associated with revisit intention. Furthermore, mediation analysis indicated that perceived restorativeness and place attachment separately mediated the relationship between perceived nature-based sports venue design characteristics and revisit intention, and together formed a sequential mediation pathway. These findings suggest that nature-based characteristics embedded within sports venues may support users’ restorative experiences and emotional connections with places, which are associated with continued engagement with sports spaces. This study provides user-centred evidence for built environment design and sports venue planning by highlighting the potential importance of natural lighting, spatial openness, visual connections with nature, and restorative spatial experiences.