LANDSCAPE DESIGN
Creating outdoor spaces for mind and body
Karen Howell, Landscape architect director of Iteriad, a specialist in the masterplanning and design of the external environments for both acute and mental healthcare facilities, discusses the important role of good landscape design in the creation of therapeutic mental health facilities.
We all recognise how green outdoor spaces and access to nature benefit our health and wellbeing, and indeed in our experience the provision of accessible outdoor space for mental health environments is absolutely key. Indeed, as architect and author, Ben Channon, puts it in his book, Happy by Design – A Guide to Architecture and Mental Wellbeing: ‘Spending time in nature has been proven to reduce stress, improve our memories, and make us kinder and more creative. It is almost impossible to overstate how good nature is for our minds.’ Ben Channon’s words ring so true for getting the designed landscape right in all types of settings. Our focus on good design should look to integrate nature into and around our buildings as much as possible, and to design to provide views out to the landscape. Creating views of the external landscape immediately provides a connection with nature, even if nature can’t be brought into the building. This starts with good site masterplanning.
Good site masterplanning This works most successfully when the landscape architect works in collaboration with the architect to plan the location and orientation of a building on the chosen site, so that it effectively captures available natural light and sunny aspect, and is set into the site to allow landscape to surround the building where possible, for views to be focused out to nature, particularly for healthcare projects. Taking opportunities to maximise accessibility, and to get the scale and size of the outdoor spaces in balance with the building, is also very important. Building on the masterplan, the design team looks to establish the ‘placemaking’ of the development. This sets the distinctiveness and character of
A render image of the garden and courtyard proposed for one wing at the New Older Adult and Dementia Care facility at the Dorothy Pattison Hospital in Walsall.
the scheme to give it its unique ‘sense of place’ or ‘spirit of place’. This covers the shaping, materiality, and scale, of a building, and its external environment, so that it takes clues from, and fits seamlessly with, its surroundings, taking cognisance of the setting, and reference to its history. Nature reflected in architecture and
interiors is often referred to as ‘biophilic’ design. Building forms can be shaped to mimic nature and bring the landscape in. Whether this is through green walls, internal planting, artworks, or nature’s colour palette used in interior design, it will soften an internal space, and immediately benefit our mood, making us feel calmer and happier.
From the ‘macro’ to the ‘micro’ scale Biophilic design works from the ‘macro’ scale right down to the ‘micro’ detailing.
Building forms can be shaped to mimic nature and bring the landscape in. Whether this is through green walls, internal planting, artworks, or nature’s colour palette used in interior design, it will soften an internal space
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Building forms that are shaped to ‘hug’ the landscape make great spaces to create ward gardens, so that there is an immediate adjacency and synergy with the internal environment. A good example are the ward units at the new North View, (formerly Park House) inpatient mental health unit at North Manchester General Hospital designed by Gilling Dod Architects (GDA) to mimic the shape of a maple tree fruit often called spinning jennys, helicopters, or wing nuts. This design and configuration has enabled ourselves as the landscape architect to create safe and private outdoors spaces within a comfortable microclimate focused on providing a place to sit and relax and enjoy the garden without feeling overlooked (The Network – May 2022). The entrance and external public realm
arrival space to a mental health building need to be designed to be welcoming, so that patients and service-users immediately feel like they are coming to a place of safety and refuge, rather than one of the austere institutional hospitals associated with the Victorian era. Requirements for safety, privacy, and security, are key components of the designer’s brief for the external environment in mental health settings.
AUGUST 2022 | THE NETWORK
© copyright Iteriad
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