nature connection

Nature-based extreme sports are often framed through sensation seeking, thrill, and voluntary exposure to risk, yet this framing can obscure the meanings participants attach to prolonged engagement with demanding natural environments. This study explored how experienced South African participants interpreted the relationship between nature-based extreme sport participation and eco-sensitivity. In this article, eco-sensitivity refers to participants' reported environmental attention, affective connection with nature, recognition of ecological dependence, concern about degradation, and efforts to reduce personal impact. A qualitative design using interpretative phenomenological analysis was applied to semi-structured interviews conducted between 29 April and 4 July 2019 with 10 experienced participants, five men and five women, who represented 11 nature-based extreme sport activities and reported two to 22 years of experience. Four interconnected themes were identified: risk as a managed component of participation; connection rather than conquest; sensory sensitivity and experiences consistent with mindfulness and flow; and eco-sensitivity and self-reported pro-environmental orientation. Participants described risk as something to calculate and manage through competence, preparation, and situational judgement. They also described respect for natural forces, heightened bodily and environmental attention, and a stronger sense of ecological dependence. Reported pro-environmental practices were self-reported and were not independently observed. The findings provide an interpretive account of how participants made sense of environmental meanings within prolonged outdoor sport involvement. They do not establish a causal developmental mechanism. The results suggest propositions for athlete education, outdoor recreation management, environmental learning, and future longitudinal research. Keywords: eco-sensitivity; extreme sport; interpretative phenomenological analysis; nature connectedness; pro-environmental behaviour; risk management.

Wellness resorts increasingly rely on therapeutic architecture to support users’ physical and psychological restoration, yet the pathways through which these design principles shape spatial circulation remain underexplored, particularly in the Nigerian hospitality context. This study investigated the influence of seven therapeutic architecture principles (connection to nature, natural lighting, natural ventilation, multi-sensory design, privacy and control, aesthetics and emotional harmony, and integration of artwork and colour) on the spatial circulation experience of users across three purposively selected resorts in Nigeria: Ilaji Resorts, Oxygen Orbit Resort, and Lakowe Lakes Golf and Country Estate. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional survey design, 297 copies of the questionnaire were administered to resort visitors, wellness practitioners, and resort staff through purposive and convenience sampling, of which 230 were validly retrieved and analysed, representing a 77.4% response rate of questionnaires administered. We conducted multiple regression analyses of eight spatial circulation indicators against the seven predictors. Findings show that all eight regression models were statistically significant (p < 0.01), with aesthetics and emotional harmony and connection to nature emerging as the strongest positive predictors specifically of ease of movement between spaces, the circulation outcome most strongly explained overall, while privacy and control was most strongly associated with privacy through spatial layout, and natural lighting was most strongly associated with the effectiveness of wayfinding and signage. Integration of artwork and colour, however, showed the strongest negative coefficient for the reduction of disorientation, suggesting that artwork and colour interventions may compete with intuitive wayfinding if not carefully placed. Accessibility, the indicator most closely tied to vertical circulation, was the most weakly explained by the therapeutic principles, indicating that stairs, ramps, and lifts in these resorts are still designed chiefly to functional and accessibility standards rather than therapeutic ones. The study concludes that therapeutic architecture principles are meaningfully associated with horizontal circulation experience in wellness resorts in Nigeria. The findings are best read as case evidence transferable to comparable resorts, not as statistically generalisable to the wider sector. The study recommends that designers prioritise daylighting, biophilic connection, and restrained, purposefully placed artwork in circulation design, while extending therapeutic considerations to vertical transitions.