Design of Natural Places for Care: Strategies and Case Studies

The importance of therapeutic green spaces in healthcare facilities has been scientifically demonstrated by international experiences. The well-being resulting from a garden designed for healing offers social, physical and psychological benefits, since the therapeutic green: (1) creates opportunities for active movement and physical activity; (2) offers the chance to make choices, in both terms of privacy and sense of control experience; (3) provides access to the nature and to other positive distractions, like situations that encourage people to come together in favour of social support’s experiences. Moreover, a comfortable healthcare environment, associated with a green space is beneficial for patient care, improving the management quality of healthcare facilities, reducing the time of hospitalization and saving healthcare costs. Nowadays, in Italy, few case studies represent and integrate the Healing Gardens’ principles. The Healing Gardens can represent a key role in supporting the traditional treatments when realized within acute care facilities, such as hospitals and healthcare facilities, but also in places hosting medium and long-term hospitalization or residential low-care structures such as Hospice, Alzheimer centers, day-care centers and nursing homes. The purpose of the chapter is to define useful design strategies and indications for Healing Gardens.