The Healing Garden
Personal project
2 months
Since antiquity, humans have recognized nature’s healing effect.
Records prove the existence of ancient Eastern healing sites nestled in natural settings. These spaces were often spiritually as well as physically cleansing, surrounded by water and lush plant life. Monastic infirmaries in the Medieval Age centered around open-air cloisters, which provided patients with opportunities for recreation, pondering, and peace.
These natural environments have historically been elements of positive distraction, inviting patients to figuratively leave their stressful, painful, and unfamiliar environment in order to connect with themselves and with the divine.
In the modern day, healing gardens are still commonly found within hospital settings. Abundant research exists showing the benefits of natural stimuli upon psychological and physiological health, but this research is rarely tied to pediatrics.
“What would a hospital room look like if it were designed by a child?” was the question that drove my initial research. Through interviews, academic literature, and studying blogs and videos created by interned pediatric patients and their families, the project evolved.
The biggest complaint I heard was that children need a space to engage in exploratory, imaginative play. That’s where The Healing Garden emerged.
The Healing Garden is a conceptual attempt to visualize a hospital garden primarily for child patients, with a secondary intent to give parents a space for solitude, pondering, and inner calm.
All elements are research-based, founded on themes from academic literature and experiential interviews.
FLOOR PLAN
Features
Model and gallery
-
Restoring kids’ sense of control by teaching them to care for plants and watch them grow.
-
A sanctuaries haven for parents, providing calm in tense moments.
-
Magical spaces for all ages to engage in exploratory play.
R. S. Ulrich's "Theory of Supportive Design" provides a foundation for much of the thinking that guides today's hospital designers. It states that healthcare environments should not raise obstacles to coping with stress, while providing access to social support and positive distractions and giving patrons a sense of control (Ulrich, 1997).
"Providing access to nature, while offering opportunities for playing, relaxing, and socialization, helps reduce stress, creates positive distractions, and promotes overall well-being, which can improve health outcomes" (Pasha, 2013).
"'It makes me feel more happy. I think it is the playful colors, the feeling of being in a completely separate and unique place ... It takes me back to a time when there were not so many worries'" (Whitehouse et al., 2001).
"Parents want their kids to be as happy as possible, and you have very little control in these situations. Sometimes you just need a place to cry" (Anonymous interview).
"Children experience a profound loss of control when they are hospitalized . . . Design innovations may help to overcome some of this sense of powerlessness for children by making mobility easier or by giving them play spaces in the hospital where they can exercise control" (Cartland et al., 2018).
Gallery scene.
Gallery scene.