Healing Gardens: Therapeutic Benefits and Design Recommendations (Wiley Series in Healthcare and Senior Living Design) (Hardcover)

by Clare Cooper Marcus (Editor), Marni Barnes (Editor) "The idea of a healing garden is both ancient and modern..." (more)
Key Phrases: healthcare gardens, supportive gardens, horticultural therapy garden, New York, San Francisco, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Although the healing qualities of nature have been recognized and relied on for centuries as a valuable part of convalescence, recent history has seen nature's therapeutic role virtually eclipsed by the technological dominance of modern medicine. As the twentieth century comes to a close and the medical community reacknowledges the importance of the environment to recovery, the healing garden is emerging as a supplement to drug- or technology-based treatments.

Healing Gardens celebrates this renewed interest in nature as a catalyst for healing and renewal by examining the different therapeutic benefits of healing gardens and offering essential design guidance from experts in the field.

Unique and comprehensive, Healing Gardens provides up-to-date coverage of research findings, relevant design principles and approaches, and best practice examples of different types of healing gardens. It begins by exploring what current research reveals about the connection between nature, human stress reduction, and medical outcomes. It then presents case studies and design guidelines for outdoor spaces in medical settings that include general, psychiatric, and children's hospitals as well as hospices, nursing homes, and Alzheimer's facilities. Historical information, literature reviews, and studies on use are included for each type of outdoor space covered, offering important insights into what works in healing gardens-and what doesn't.

Generously supplemented with photographs, site plans, anecdotes, and more, Healing Gardens is an invaluable practical guide for landscape architects and others involved in creating and maintaining medical facilities, and an extremely useful reference for those responsible for patient care.

A unique and comprehensive look at the therapeutic effects and design of healing gardens For more and more people, the shortest road to recovery is the one that leads through a healing garden. Combining up-to-date information on the therapeutic benefits of healing gardens with practical design guidance from leading experts in the field, Healing Gardens is an important resource for landscape architects and others working in this emerging area. With the help of site plans, photographs, and more, it presents design guidelines and case studies for outdoor spaces in a range of medical settings, including:
* Acute care general hospitals.
* Psychiatric hospitals.
* Children's hospitals.
* Nursing homes.
* Alzheimer's facilities.
* Hospices.

From the Inside Flap
Although the healing qualities of nature have been recognized and relied on for centuries as a valuable part of convalescence, recent history has seen nature’s therapeutic role virtually eclipsed by the technological dominance of modern medicine. As the twentieth century comes to a close and the medical community reacknowledges the importance of the environment to recovery, the healing garden is emerging as a supplement to drug- or technology-based treatments. Healing Gardens celebrates this renewed interest in nature as a catalyst for healing and renewal by examining the different therapeutic benefits of healing gardens and offering essential design guidance from experts in the field. Unique and comprehensive, Healing Gardens provides up-to-date coverage of research findings, relevant design principles and approaches, and best practice examples of different types of healing gardens. It begins by exploring what current research reveals about the connection between nature, human stress reduction, and medical outcomes. It then presents case studies and design guidelines for outdoor spaces in medical settings that include general, psychiatric, and children’s hospitals as well as hospices, nursing homes, and Alzheimer’s facilities. Historical information, literature reviews, and studies on use are included for each type of outdoor space covered, offering important insights into what works in healing gardens—and what doesn’t. Generously supplemented with photographs, site plans, anecdotes, and more, Healing Gardens is an invaluable practical guide for landscape architects and others involved in creating and maintaining medical facilities, and an extremely useful reference for those responsible for patient care.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 624 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (June 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471192031
• ISBN-13: 978-0471192039
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #574,274 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Resource for the Healing Garden Designer, December 26, 2000

By A Customer

Beautiful organization, research examples to support common-sense recommendations, case studies with pictures, this superb book is the first stop for the healing garden designer. The case studies and design recommendations are grouped by health care setting, which makes the reading more focused. By far the best professional text on the topic.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Despite flaws, this is the best textbook for Healing Gardens, October 4, 2007

By	H. Domke (New Bloomfield, MO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Conclusion:
Despite it's flaws, it is probably the best textbook available on Healing Gardens.

Pros:
Clear advice to help landscape architects design healing gardens.

A comprehensive discussion of theory.

Cons:
If you want a picture book, this is not for you.

No evidence-based design (because there isn't any)

My first impression of this book was not good. I am a visual person and I wanted to see some large full-color pictures of healing gardens. Instead, most of the images were back & white, small and of mediocre quality.

Many of the images appear to have been taken by amateurs and the inexpensive printing on non-glossy paper did not help.

Yes there is a 14-page glossy color insert in the center of the book, but the snapshots shown were tiny, with 3 or 4 clustered on each page. There was no clear connection from the text to these images.

Site plans are critical to landscape gardening. There were only 35 site plans in this book of 610 pages and like the photographs, they too were small; typically about 4 x 4-inches each and none were in color.

The book's subtitle "Therapeutic Benefits..." and the use of Roger Ulrich as the author of Chapter Two suggests that evidence-based design will be central but it seems that there is not much good research to draw from. Ulrich writes "... very little research directly relevant to gardens has used the types of experimental-scientific methods that are considered sound and persuasive...".

Instead of evidence we have to consider the advice of experts and certainly the two main authors: Clarie Cooper Marcus and Marni Barnes are experts. They also happen to be very good writers. They have clear suggestions for a wide range of healing gardens. They have separate chapters focusing on:
* Acute Care Hospitals
* Psychiatric Hospitals
* Children's Hospitals
* Nursing Homes
* Hospices
* Alzheimer's Facilities

Chapter 11 is called "Getting it Done" and it offers practical advice based on several case studies. It discusses funding and implementation in ways that would be very useful to someone who was meeting with resistance from the hospital administration.

At the end of every chapter there are several pages of references. For those in an academic setting these would be useful.

I might have missed it, but one thing I did not find in the book was: how to deal with gardens when plants are dormant. The two main authors are from the Bay area where the growing season is year-round. However, much of the rest of the planet has distinct seasons. Is it really "healing" to look out into a garden devoid of vegetation for several months a year?

6 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Aplicaciones para la salud, June 17, 2000

By A Customer

Creo que es un buen punto de partida para comenzar a incluir en el diseño del entorno y el paisaje pautas que incluyan un beneficio directo en la salud de quienes lo contemplan.