Streatery Interface Design for Healthy and Inclusive Streets: A Scenario-Based Experimental Study of Perceived Spatial Publicness and Emotional Restoration

Although streateries, defined here as outdoor commercial extensions of dining, café, or retail activities into street-edge pedestrian spaces, can enliven urban streets, their commercial use of public pedestrian space may raise concerns about openness, shareability, and inclusion. This study examines how different streatery interface designs affect pedestrians’ perceived spatial publicness and emotional restoration, and whether perceived spatial publicness mediates this relationship. Drawing on publicness studies and Restorative Environment Theory, a scenario-based between-subjects experiment was conducted using four standardized visual stimuli: boundaryless open, fully enclosed, flexible permeable, and hybrid covered interfaces. Based on 420 valid questionnaires, Welch’s ANOVA, Games–Howell post hoc tests, independent-sample t -tests, and PROCESS mediation analysis were performed. The results show that prior streatery consumption experience significantly increased perceived spatial publicness but did not significantly affect emotional restoration. Interface type had significant effects on both outcomes, following a non-monotonic pattern: hybrid covered and flexible permeable interfaces performed best, the fully enclosed interface performed worst, and the boundaryless open interface was not necessarily optimal. Perceived spatial publicness partially mediated the relationship between interface type and emotional restoration, indicating one psychological pathway through which interface design shapes restorative experience. These findings suggest a possible perceptual-level emotional compensation pathway, in which perceived spatial publicness serves as one tested route linking streatery interface design with emotional restoration in southern Chinese commercial street contexts. The study offers context-specific evidence for public-experience-oriented streatery design in southern Chinese commercial streets.