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Healthcare and Therapeutic Garden Design


Course Description

Physical, psychological, perceptual influences of garden design on health, healing, and wellness with emphasis on design in hospital, health care institutions, treatment centers, and childcare facilities.

Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students are expected to serve leading roles within the studio and demonstrate their leadership during group project assignments. Additional work is expected and will be assigned to graduate students in addition to the undergraduate requirements. The quality of the work will demonstrate excellence and greater depth in design thinking and theory, design fundamentals, graphic communication, and written description/explanation. For every studio project assigned, additional research, design drawings, and presentation requirements are expected (e.g., case study research, illustrative and technical drawings, and written narrative/descriptions).


Athena Title

Therapeutic Garden Design


Equivalent Courses

Not open to students with credit in LAND 4080S


Undergraduate Prerequisite

LAND 4060 or LAND 4060S


Graduate Prerequisite

LAND 6020


Semester Course Offered

Offered fall


Grading System

A - F (Traditional)


Course Objectives

This course will reinforce skills learned in prerequisite studio courses, which may include, but are not limited to the following: design fundamentals; design process; graphic and written communication; site inventory and analysis; illustrative analog and digital graphics; construction detailing; construction documents; site engineering and stormwater management; plant selection; and planting design. Students will demonstrate a clear understanding of “evidence- based” design in their proposed design solutions. Students will choose and apply appropriate methodologies for conducting case studies and post-occupancy evaluations(P.O.E’s) to establish design criteria Students will demonstrate through their design solutions a foundational understanding of the breadth of garden types and characteristics which are believed to promote restoration, healing, learning. Students will demonstrate through their design solutions a clear understanding of how aesthetic characteristics of a landscape influence garden users.


Topical Outline

Communicating Planting Design - Drawing and graphics. Planting Design Basics - Theory and practice at a residential scale. The Meaning of Plants - Plants as design elements with aesthetic, cultural, and therapeutic meaning. Designing Gardens for Health and Healing Final Presentation to Clients Specifications and Details Assignment - Final lecture, class discussion, and final exam


Syllabus