Rationale for Healing Gardens
The goal of this presentation is to place Healing Gardens into the bigger picture of Healthcare Design: The whole site and the way it operates, the way it contributes to the environment of care and its potential to heal.
A healthcare project has a very unique culture that a designer needs to understand:
- At the center should be the patient, the person we are designing for who has unique needs.
- Healthcare administrators have a very different mindset and perspective than patients and designers; they live with life and death decisions in an industry that is controlled by accountants and insurance companies.
- Clinical Staff deals with the day to day stress of patient care and develops a certain way of doing things - each healthcare facility has a unique culture.
- The design team should work together to consider the whole site, the building inside and out to create an optimal environment for healing and stress reduction.
- A research team can offer invaluable insights on the best ways to accomplish design goals by looking at the effects of specific decision of the built project.
- Contractors have the responsibility to present a calm face during a noisy and messy construction process.
- Facilities departments should be involved early in the design to ensure long term maintenance, a facility that looks cared for shows that its patients will be cared for as well.
- Support groups interface with the community and provide valuable programming opportunities.
- Donors can fund specialty gardens, programming and maintenance.
This class examines how healing gardens and stress reducing site design fit into the overall healing environment of a healthcare facility. The attendee will learn guidelines and terminology associated with designing for desired outcomes as well as connections between healthy environments and healthy populations.
1 hour
