Healing Landscapes: How Landscape Architecture Can Help Facilitate Healing and Well-Being

• Main Author: Bell, Britney
• Other Authors: Straub, Dietmar (Landscape Architecture)
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: healing; landscape
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/23967

The purpose of this practicum is about an exploration of a new idea of nature and how well design landscapes can help facilitate healing and well-being for people in the urban context and healthcare institution. We live in a time where the city is expanding again and again beyond its limits, slowly taking over the natural landscape that exists beyond its boundaries. As the city continues to grow outwards into the landscape, it also continues to grow inwards, slowly becoming denser; filling the void spaces that exist with additional buildings. Natural landscapes and pockets of green space that have claimed land in the city are always in danger of being taken over by development. The landscape has the potential to create an extension of the hospital through a space for people to pause and connect with nature, while improving quality of life and providing a positive experience for a patient during their time of healing.