Abstract
Biophilic design is acknowledged as a crucial strategy for improving student engagement, enhancing their well-being, cognitive performance, and engagement in contemporary learning environments. However, existing biophilic evaluation methods are largely static and require cross-cultural validation, especially across East Asian and Middle Eastern environments. Egypt and China were chosen for this study because they offer a strong comparative framework and have different climates, educational philosophies, and degrees of technology integration. Simultaneously, the development of architectural techniques capable of assessing the biophilic impact of mixed reality (MR) technologies has lagged behind the fast incorporation of MR technology in schools. By creating and evaluating the Biophilic Measurement Assessment Equation (BMAE), a quantitative model that incorporates Traditional Biophilic Elements (TBE), Immersive Biophilic Elements (IBE), and Behavioral and Emotional Indicators (BEI), this work fills in these gaps. Cross-cultural empirical research with a sample of 200 students was carried out at four international schools, two in Egypt and two in China. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results demonstrate strong measurement reliability and model fit (SRMR = 0.058), with biophilic factors explaining 72% of the variance in learning cognitive engagement (R² = 0.72). Among the constructs, BEI emerged as the strongest predictor (β = 0.392), followed by TBE (β = 0.312) and IBE (β = 0.278), all statistically significant (p < 0.001). The findings establish BMAE as a robust, transferable assessment framework, offering a methodological contribution to evidence-based architectural design of immersive biophilic learning environments across diverse cultural settings.