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Gimme Shelter! Shade in the healing garden

Ulfelder rooftop garden, Massachusetts General Hospital. Photo by Naomi Sachs

Ulfelder rooftop garden, Massachusetts General Hospital. Photo by Naomi Sachs

I’ve been meaning to write this post all summer, and of course now it’s fall and here in the northeast, shade doesn’t seem as important anymore. But plenty of the country is still baking (if not on fire), and half of the world is just now headed into summer. I asked the TLN Facebook group to rate the importance of shade, on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most important). Two people responded “11,” and one member, from TX, responded with 15. So here we go:

The importance of shade in the healing garden

I’m so tired of seeing “healing gardens” with no shade, or too little shade. I’ve seen many designs that are successful except for this one crucial element. I don’t know about you, but on a hot, bright day in August, the last place I want to be is outside in the sun, sweating and squinting. It’s gotten to the point where lack of shade doesn’t just make me sad, it makes me angry. Because while it’s a nice amenity in any public space, in the healthcare setting, shade truly is a matter of health.

Why provide shade?

1.  Sun protection, from UV exposure and glare
For burn patients; the elderly; people with cancer; AIDS; traumatic brain injuries (TBI); psychiatric illnesses which require medications that increase photosensitivity (sensitivity to the sun); and other conditions where direct sun (UV) exposure is hazardous, shade is paramount. In addition, colored concrete is often recommended for outdoor healthcare environments because it reduces glare. This is one of the reasons why we have embraced Scofield as a Wonderful Sponsor.

Photo by Naomi Sachs

2.  Heat mitigation
Shade provides a cooling effect, thus facilitating use of outdoor space for as much of the year as possible. This is particularly important in regions where high temperatures discourage people from venturing outdoors.

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Wordless Wednesday, 9/14/11 – Heart leaf

Cottonwood leaf. Photo by Naomi Sachs

Cottonwood leaf. Photo by Naomi Sachs

Horticultural Therapy Institute offers “Fundamentals of HT”

Horticultural Therapy (HT) uses plants, gardens, and other aspects of nature to improve people’s social, spiritual, physical and emotional well-being. If you’re interested in learning more about and even becoming certified in HT, check out these Fundamentals of Horticultural Therapy classes being offered by the Horticultural Therapy Institute:

Fundamentals of Horticultural Therapy

Learn how to combine a passion for gardening and helping people through the innovative field of horticultural therapy. Join students from across the country to learn more by enrolling in Fundamentals of Horticultural Therapy this fall in one of three locations.

With its unique format, you don’t need to live where the classes are held and the format accommodates those who must travel to attend. You can complete this class in only four consecutive days at one of the class sites (Thursday-Sunday).

At the non-profit Horticultural Therapy Institute, students gain the skills and confidence to create and manage successful horticultural therapy programs, and are inspired to become leaders in the practice and profession of horticultural therapy. Our experienced faculty is dedicated to teaching best practices with passion and excellence, keeping an eye on the changing needs of programs, people and places. The four-day class will introduce the profession and practice of horticultural therapy, which uses gardening activities in community gardens, children’s gardens, prisons and health care and human service programs for example. The course describes the types of programs utilizing HT as well as the cognitive, social, emotional and physical goals for the varied people served. It also exposes students to resources for further exploration and to professionals in the field.

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Engaging Our Grounds – Int’l Green Schoolyard Conference

Berkeley Adventure Playground, Berkeley, CA. Photo by SharonDanks

Berkeley Adventure Playground, Berkeley, CA. Photo by SharonDanks

Engaging Our Grounds
2011 International Green Schoolyard Conference
September 16–18, 2011
Berkeley & San Francisco, California
www.greenschoolyards.org

I would so love to go to this conference.

The green schoolyard movement is growing rapidly and flourishing around the world.  Schools near and far are re-imagining their grounds, replacing their extensive paved surfaces with a vibrant mosaic of outdoor learning and play opportunities. Schools in many different countries are leaders in this field, finding innovative ways to weave curricula into their landscapes, diversify their recreational offerings, enhance their local ecology, and reflect their unique location and cultural context.

We are at the forefront of a new paradigm that blends education, ecology, and urban sustainability.  We invite you to join us and become an important part of this exciting movement by registering and supporting this ground-breaking event.

Participate in the first International Green Schoolyard Conference held in the United States—an exciting opportunity to learn about cutting edge schoolyards and school gardens, meet like-minded colleagues from around the world, share ideas, tour fantastic local school grounds (including the Berkeley Adventure Playground, pictured above), and get inspirational ideas for your own community.

Engaging Our Grounds will bring together leading green schoolyards practitioners from the United States and other countries to share the latest trends and innovations, case studies, best practices, and creative thinking in green schoolyard design, maintenance, curricula, advocacy, and funding partnerships. The conference will include a resource and networking fair, keynote presentations by visionary leaders of the school ground movement from Canada, England, Germany, Japan, and Sweden; tours of outstanding local school grounds; and networking time.

Learn more and register at www.greenschoolyards.org.

Thanks to Sharon Danks, conference organizer and author of the terrific new book Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation, for this information and these images.

Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo this month – Discounts for TLN members!

Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo healing garden. Image courtesy Hitchcock Design Group

Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo healing garden. Image courtesy Hitchcock Design Group

Just around the corner, with discounts for TLN members

Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo
September 20 – 22, 2011
Navy Pier, Chicago, IL

The Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo, now in its 24th year, is the original event that brings together the entire team who designs, plans, constructs and manages healthcare facilities.

This year, they will debut a Healing Garden located on the exhibit floor and created and sponsored by Hitchcock Design Group (members of the TLN’s Designers and Consultants Directory). Learn how these landscape architects are creating spaces that improve patient experience outside the building to enhance the healing process. Within this garden, a number of therapeutic elements make this space “healing.” Healing gardens benefit patients by improving medical outcomes, reducing stress and elevating the immune system. For more information visit www.hcarefacilities.com.

And we get special treatment! All Therapeutic Landscapes Network members, including anyone who joins the TLN between now and September 22, will receive a 20% discount on the full conference pass or a VIP ticket for a free pass to the Expo. VIP Tickets include admission on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 to the Keynote, the Exhibit Hall, Healing Garden, educational sessions in the Learning Lounge, and evening reception.

To join the TLN (membership is free, and you’ll receive our monthly newsletter), go to www.healinglandscapes.org/resources/newsletter.

 

Water Features in the Landscape – Please take our survey!

Detail, water feature at Chicago Botanic Garden. Photo by Naomi Sachs

Chicago Botanic Garden. Photo by Naomi Sachs

In the last TLN Blog post about the upcoming annual ASLA Meeting and Expo, I mentioned an education session that Jack Carman, Clare Cooper Marcus and I will be giving, “Water in the Designed Landscape: Benefits, Precautions, and Recommendations.” Click HERE to link to the last post, with the blurb about our talk.

I also mentioned that I’m conducting a survey about water features. While the survey is geared toward designers and people in the healthcare field, it can be taken by anyone who has designed or has experience with water features. Private and public fountains, ponds, and water parks all have their benefits as well as their risks, and they all certainly need maintenance, which is a primary focus of the survey. The more respondents we have, the better our ability to impart information at the annual meeting and then, eventually, as more detailed research. Please pass this along to anyone (and everyone!) who you think would have something to say.

Here’s the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/waterh2o.

Thanks so much!

Urn fountain at Wesley Woods Hospital of Emory Healthcare-Emory University. Photo by Naomi Sachs

Urn fountain at Wesley Woods Hospital of Emory Healthcare-Emory University. Photo by Naomi Sachs

Chicago Botanic Garden. Photo by Naomi Sachs

Chicago Botanic Garden. Photo by Naomi Sachs

ASLA Meeting & Expo! Good stuff this year, and in San Diego.

Photo by Henry Domke, http://henrydomke.com

Photo by Henry Domke, www.henrydomke.com

Annual ASLA Meeting & Expo, San Diego, CA, 10/30-11/2/2011

The annual ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) Meeting & Expo is coming up fast, and I’m really looking forward to it. As with every year, several sessions focus or at least touch on restorative landscapes, and I’ll share those with you in this post. Lots of other good stuff, too – see the full program on the ASLA website. Advance deadline is 9/16, so hurry up and register.

The ASLA Healthcare and Therapeutic Design Professional Practice Network will hold its annual meeting on Monday from 11:00-12:30. This is the best way to meet colleagues involved in this kind of work. In fact, the TLN was born from one of those meetings (see History on our website)!

In addition, our group MAY be having another meeting before the meeting, as we did last year in Washington, D.C. As a group, we walked around various sites on the Mall related to restorative landscapes. It was a great success, and though San Diego is far more spread out, we hope to visit a couple key sites the day before the meeting.

Here are some of the education sessions I’ll be attending. I have to attend the first one, on Sunday, 1:30-3:00 because I’m speaking at it, with my wonderful colleagues Jack Carman and Clare Cooper Marcus.

“Water in the Designed Landscape: Benefits, Precautions, and Recommendations”

We know water is an important landscape design element and that people are naturally drawn to it. But how does it affect us and why? Presenters will explore current research and the theoretical and practical implications for water features in the landscape, particularly to maximize benefits and minimize risk.

Learn about theories of why and how water‚ natural and designed‚ contributes to making spaces restorative. Evaluate a specific study on human reaction to the sound of water and its design implications. Explore safety concerns involving water features, especially in healthcare settings, and the latest design and maintenance findings.

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Wordless Wednesday, 8/17/11 – Wish Tree

Yoko Ono's "Wish Tree for Washington, DC." Photo by Naomi Sachs

"Wish Tree for Washington, DC" by Yoko Ono. Photo by Naomi Sachs

"Wish Tree for Washington, DC" by Yoko Ono. Photo by Naomi Sachs

"Wish Tree for Washington, DC" by Yoko Ono. Photo by Naomi Sachs

 

This year at Greenbuild! “The Human Connection: Landscapes that Promote Health and Well-Being.”

Gary Comer Youth Center Rooftop Garden, Chicago, IL. Image courtesy Hoerr Shaudt Landscape Architects

Gary Comer Youth Center Rooftop Garden, Chicago, IL. Image courtesy Hoerr Shaudt Landscape Architects

This year at Greenbuild (www.greenbuildexpo.org), Zolna Russell, Director of Sustainability at Hord Coplan Macht, Peter Schaudt, Principal at Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects and I (Naomi Sachs) will be presenting the Education Session “The Human Connection: Landscapes that Promote Health and Well-Being.” Competition for presentations was stiff – hundreds of proposals were submitted – and so it’s a testament to the growing interest in this field of restorative and therapeutic landscapes that our talk was chosen.

Greenbuild is in beautiful Toronto, Canada this year, from October 4-7. Early-bird registration ends MONDAY, so if you’re thinking about going, make that decision before Monday and save some money. Go to the Greenbuild site to register.

Here’s the blurb about our Education Session:

It is well known that humans benefit from exposure and connection to nature. LEED has acknowledged this and requires projects to create meaningful outdoor spaces. This seminar will explore the documented benefits of landscapes for health which are designed using evidence based design. Case studies of several landscape settings including healthcare, school environments and public spaces will demonstrate the principles and outcomes of evidence based design and specific characteristics which make projects successful.

We’ll be talking (on 10/5) about the characteristics, with examples and case studies, of restorative landscapes (any landscape, wild or designed, that facilitates health and well-being) and therapeutic gardens (a garden, in this case usually healthcare gardens, designed for a specific population and a specific site with a specific intended outcome). We’ll discuss restorative and therapeutic landscapes as addressed in the Green Guide for Healthcare, LEED for Healthcare, and SITES (the Sustainable Sites Initiative).

Our program was selected as one of Greenbuild’s “special sets,” which means we’ll have some sort of fancy stage set-up that facilitates more interaction with the audience and really shows off all of the beautiful images we’ll be showing. Should be fun!

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Wordless Wednesday, 8/10/11 – Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)

Milkweed (Asclepius syriaca). Photo by Naomi Sachs

Milkweed (Asclepius syriaca). Photo by Naomi Sachs

It’s only fitting that we feature a photo of milkweed (this one is Asclepias syriaca) named by Carl Linneaus for the Greek god medicine and healing, Asclepius.

Son of Apollo and Coronis, father of five daughters: Hygia (“Hygiene”), Laso (“Medicine”), Aceso (“Healing”), Aglæa/Ægle (“Healthy glow), and Panacea (“Universal remedy”). The snake-entwined staff, often used as symbol in the medical world, is the rod of Asclepius.