Article Review 4

Professor Clare Cooper Marcus give a well informed and very well detailed description of how Patient-specific Healing Garden's Landscape should be designed. She has also mentioned dates and matched them with today's knowledge about gardens and how things have changed from then to now.

Marcus also mentioned the difference certain Healing Gardens have from another for example those that have mental illness will find different surroundings then those how are suffering from stress. All gardens do have a large amount of greenery but little changes are made with the layout due to what illness the garden is supposed to heal.

Clare Cooper Marcus, 2015. Landscape design: Patient-specific Healing Gardens. [Online] (2015) Available at: < http://www.worldhealthdesign.com/patient-specific-healing-gardens.aspx> [1 June 2015].

Article Review 3

What are healing gardens for?

This article gives a very well explanation of what healing gardens to and how the help our wellbeing. 

Some mentioned are:

• Stress
• Anxiety
• Pain

And several other mentioned which will then be mentioned in my final essay. More detail was mentioned when Mary Jo Kreitzer, RN, PhD mentions how important nature is for us as human beings and how we cannot and will not live without it. Certain plants were mentioned and what they do to make our wellbeing better.

Kreitzer also mentioned materials which are not so good to have in a healing garden and what negative feelings we get from them for example if there is a big amount of concrete and less % of greenery we will not feel as ease or calm but confused and uncomfortable. Garden benefits are also mentioned and even important healing features such as abstract sculptures cannot be placed in a healing garden because as Kreitzer stated "patients thought that a large gazing ball in one garden was the "evil eye." A somewhat abstracted sculptures of birds was seen as "vultures that scrape flesh."

Mary Jo Kreitzer, RN, PhD, 2013. What are Healing Gardens for. [Online] (2013) Available at: < http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore-healing-practices/healing-environment/what-are-healing-gardens> [1 June 2015].

Article Review 2

This Article Explains what a healing gardens would need to help heal and keep the mind at ease by having certain things as mentioned and found before in other books and links read.

• Greenery
• No abstract sculptures due to confusion 
• Big trees for shade and privacy
• Gardens that can be touched and smelled for example plants and flowers
• Wide path ways
• Water, river or pond nothing loud or full of pressure
• Easy access 

Scientific American, 2012. How hospital gardens help patients heal. [online] Available at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nature-that-nurtures/?page=3 [accessed 1 June 2015].

Film and Website Review

Here is a trailer of what a campaign is doing to make children express and love nature more then wanting to play video games and use technology all the time which is also unhealthy if not taken care of. This trailer shows how this campaign is willing to do something for todays way of living and making children live like other used to when they were young and make them appreciate life and nature more.

This link was found from another website called, play england which is also another campaign which helps children play more and live life lively with nature, it shows all of their upcoming ideas, events, projects, researches and case studies on a better way of playing, children and life with nature.

Links:

Play England, 2015. Freedom to play. [Online] Available at: <http://www.playengland.org.uk/>[3 May 2015]. 

Wild thing, 2015. Reconnecting kids with nature. [Online] Available at: <http://projectwildthing.com/film> [3 May 2015]. 

Article Review 1

This Article had several different example on how nature helps human beings live happier also how to make them appreciate nature and what it does for them, how it makes them feel. It mentions how people would like today's children to appreciate nature more then technology and show them how it affect their well-being.

In one example - Making space for technology, Ella Britton shows an example of how technology still can be healthy for children and also active.

Percentages are mentioned, positives and negatives, also the reason why certain cases were done in the first place. The information given also links you to other websites of groups and researchers which are trying to show the world what nature truly does for our well-being. Historical places turned into gardens, activities made for children also the elderly, charity work and parks made out of recycled materials. How nature affect human's well being and how they are exploiting it today.

Link:
Ella Britton, 2013. Re-designing public spaces to improve health and wellbeing - in pictures. [Online] (2013) Available at: <http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/gallery/redesigning-space-health-wellbeing-in-pictures> [Accessed 2 May 2015].

Book Review

Historic Part

A lot of information was given, gardens that were designed before and why, what sort of healing they had and also how today's gardens are influence by them. Multiple gardens were mentioned and also from different countries and island. Aesthetics how they were built and what healing gardens meant. Why certain plants were placed vertically and why certain gardens were hidden. Characteristics were also mentioned and the potential each garden had. How gardens are effecting our lives today and how they still have the same thought of what they have had years ago.

Main Part of the Book

Gayle Souter Brown goes into more detail explaining how every human being at any age or state benefits from these healing gardens. Images are shown, case studies are mentioned even interviews and points, quotes mention in other books that Brown got her research from.

Studies on every type of healing garden are in this book, gardens for the depressed, stressed, elderly, unhealthy, disabled, children, school, mental health and well-being. Diagrams and also pie charts which show basic elements of healing gardens. 

• light and shade
• view
• comfortable seating
• textural detail
• water
• accessible features
• wildlife - birds etc.
• cultural reference
• personal reference
• scale

Plants, herbs, flowers and fruits, senses and what is good for them. Explanation of materials positive and negative feedback. Light, scent, comfort and why we need these things in our lives. With every information given Brown still 'matches' today's healing gardens with historic ones showing how we still are following certain 'foot steps'.

Layouts of how certain healing gardens should be made and a very well informative guide with points of what is good to help with healing.

This is a very helpful book and it is truly informative and detailed. Brown has helped me understand what is good for our well-being and how nature does truly effect us and how we do as human being need it in our lives.

Chapter Reviews

CHAPTER 3 - The broken social scene

This chapter describes how people end up not being happy with were they live especially is they're not in a happy environment or even if they do not spend enough time exploring nature. Charles Montgomery also mentions that if you want to know how happiness influenced your city you have to study the landscapes history first. True stories are mentioned even interviews he has had with people and how they are not happy with how they are living. He describes everything in detail and also gives interesting points which will help guide you through what he is trying to point out. 

CHAPTER 5 - Getting it wrong

Montgomery focuses on how human beings are getting happiness wrong. How the mind works and how it tricks the way a humans think they'll feel happy with the way they are living. Well-being is mentioned and also causes of why certain unhealthy illnesses happen.

CHAPTER 6 - How to be closer

Nature is mentioned quite a lot in this chapter and it shows what the positive is about it and also the negative that one can find when not being surrounded by it - nature. Interviews, surveys and also studies were made even with patients. Healing was also another topic in this chapter, what was needed to be healed, what was healing, and how it healed.

Introduction

How Nature - Gardens Affect our well being.

This essay discusses the affects of Gardens (Healing, Sensory and Therapeutic) on human beings. This study researches how nature - gardens affects in various ways, feelings, moods, illness or weaknesses for example; someone who is dealing with stress might not probably want to be in a loud busy environment but instead in a nice calm place and surrounded by nature.

The discussion looks for positive ways that make humans stronger and healthier. Nature affects people in many ways and also makes the world look like a brighter place. There are things that make it look that way (positive place) and this discussion will mention why.

Investigation will also be taken on garden designs and how concepts are designed and if they were designed in a certain way on purpose and the reasons why for example; if the design was made for certain affects it might have on certain people or if it was just designed for the beauty of it - aesthetic.

History will also be produced, why gardens were designed before and if they were designed to help through tough times such as war, recession and etc I would also be investigating to see if these gardens helped people go through their everyday life.

Essay Title

To help come up with my Essay's Title I have made a mind map which had to do with Urban Design. The key words which I have chosen to work with were:

• Outdoor 
• Weather
• Garden
• Nature
• Elders
• Children
• Ergonomics
• Health Concerns
• Safety
• Disabled
• Easy Access

The title that I have chosen to work with was How Urban Design Affects our Well-being. I was to investigation how Urban Design affects our well-being and if it does, what affects us in a positive or a negative way? Are today’s designers having an aesthetic and functional approach for our well-being and also the design itself?

Motivation:

Nowadays people like to experience outdoor public spaces such as parks, gardens, arenas, lakes and etc. Are these spaces ergonomically and friendly designed to the ones able and also the disabled? Are these spaces being designed aesthetically, as well as functional or, addressing the weathers climate change; heat, wind or rain?

After presenting my Proposal presentation during class my teacher's feedback was to narrow down the Tittle for it was to broad. We discussed it together and thought of choosing Gardens instead of Urban Design for I had done some research and found a perfect book to help guide me through.

New title: 

How Nature - Gardens Affect our well being.

Books to be used:

Gayle, S.B., 2015. Landscape and Urban Design for Well-being Using Healing, Sensory and Therapeutic Gardens. USA and Canada: Routledge.

Charles, C.B., 2013. Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design. United States of America: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.