A successful landscape is one that allows people to feel comfortable within that landscape. Many people who live in an urban environment use gardens and parks as a way to balance their lives from the hard edge of what the world requires of them. That balance adds to the level of comfort and a decrease in stress. My thesis is to create a parking garage with that balance. A balance of hardscape with softscape, of practical uses with amenities, and of current methodology with progressive ideology. It will integrate parking and gardens, the static with the transitional. The proposal will create a balance between parking spaces where time is measured in hours with garden areas where time is measured in seasons. Thomas Jefferson said, "It takes time to persuade man to do even what is for his own good." This thesis is an example of that. Something that will take time for people, companies, municipalities and governing bodies to aspire to but that will, ultimately, be to the benefit of everyone. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Grön rehabilitering innebär att naturen används som ett läkande element tillsammans med den traditionella vita vården. Studien är baserad på intervjuer med både personal och deltagare inom tre utvalda verksamheter där grön rehabilitering bedrivs. Målgruppen är långtidssjukskrivna och fokus ligger på deras upplevelser av rehabiliteringen. Resultatet tyder på att naturen har en positiv inverkan på deltagarnas psykiska och fysiska läkeprocess; de får möjlighet att stanna upp och reflektera över sin situation. Resultatet har analyserats utifrån teorierna empowerment och känsla av sammanhang - KASAM. I rehabiliteringen finner deltagarna verktyg till att ta kontroll över sina liv samt att göra sina liv begripliga, hanterbara och meningsfulla.

The "healing garden" is an evolving concept that is gaining popularity today. What is a healing garden? Why is one garden called a healing garden and not another? How is a healing garden defined? In what way are gardens healing? This thesis describes the ways in which healing gardens are beneficial in healthcare and residential settings. A set of guidelines for the design of healing gardens is created as a result of research findings as well as three design projects that are illustrated in the document. / Master of Landscape Architecture

The purpose of this preference study is to identify the effects that the presence of a healing garden may have, on the perceived stress of African American women living in in low-income public housing. Literature states that women who live in public housing experience higher rates of malnutrition, fatigue, susceptibility to infection, and premature death (Adler et al., 1994; Whelch and Kneipp, 2005). Few of these studies address healing gardens as solutions. The explanation of behavior while visiting a healing garden in this study will help to identify particular aspects of gardens that are perceived as therapeutic. This research compared two groups of women residing in low-income public housing, where they were asked to rate their perceived level of stress throughout intervals of the study. Findings suggest that the presence of healing gardens in low-income public housing developments can be an effective stress management tool for African American women.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture / Laurence A. Clement, Jr. / Restorative landscapes are a growing trend within health care environments and can have a lasting impact on people if applied within other settings, particularly higher education campuses. Their design captures the many healing qualities of nature that humans are instinctively attracted to (Heerwagen, 2011). Within restorative landscapes, people have been historically found to experience relief of stress, improved morale, and improved overall well-being (Barnes et al., 1999). While campus planning standards do consider the outdoor environment as an extension of the classroom, higher education campuses can do more to utilize the cognitive benefits of nature for students, faculty and staff. This project explores principles and theories of restorative landscape design, empirical psychological research, and campus design to develop a framework that facilitates the creation of restorative campus spaces on higher education campuses. In partnership with the Office of Design and Construction Management at the University of Kansas, the framework was subsequently applied through the design of the landscape for the Center for Design Research on the KU campus. In the context of current campus planning challenges, restorative landscape design is a potentially valuable strategy in strengthening the beneficial roles and efficacy of the campus landscape. This design project explores its application to envision places within a higher education campus that, along with other benefits, relieve stress for students, faculty and staff.

One of every 166 children born today could be diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (CDC 2006). Growing bodies of evidence show sensory integration issues may be at the root of many of the symptoms children with ASD exhibit. Sensory integration is defined as the ability to feel, understand, and organize sensory information from the body and environment. The issues surrounding sensory integration are reflected in both hypersensitive and hyposensitive reactions by children with ASD to the vestibular, proprioception, visual, audio, tactile, and olfactory senses.The goal of this paper is to address the sensory integration issues of children with ASD by creating a sensory garden which would allow them to focus on therapeutic and diagnostic interventions. By using the principles and elements of design, guidelines for this garden focused on producing calming effects for hyper reactive children with ASD and stimulating effects for hypo reactions.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Alnarp : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2005. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Syftet med vår studie var att studera trädgårdsterapins roll i människors tillfrisknande från stressrelaterad ohälsa. Studiens frågeställningar var: (1) vilka faktorer beskrivs som stressreducerande i natur och trädgård? (2) på vilket sätt kan personer med stressrelaterad ohälsa bli hjälpta genom trädgårdsterapi? För att besvara våra frågeställningar användes en kvalitativ metod med hjälp av en kunskapsöversikt. Våra analysverktyg har varit KASAM och Coping. Slutsatsen av studien är att trädgård och natur kan stärka återhämtningsprocessen för människor med stressrelaterad ohälsa. Trädgård och natur kan bidra med stressreducerande faktorer som gör att återhämtningen påskyndas och stärks, såsom att hitta lugn, känna trygghet och få utrymme för reflektion. Även samtal och aktiviteter är viktiga delar för återhämtning i trädgårdsterapin. Sökord vi använt oss av är: trädgårdsterapi, terapiträdgårdar, grön rehabilitering, restorativ trädgård och stressrelaterad ohälsa. / The aim of this study was to study the role of horticultural therapy in people´s recovery from stress-related illness. Study questions were: (1) what factors are described as stress-reducing in nature and gardening? (2) in what way can people with stress-related illness be helped by garden therapy? In order to answer our questions, a qualitative methodology using a research synthesis has been made. Our analysis tools were Sense of Coherence and Coping. The study shows that garden and nature can enhance the recovery process for people with stress-related illness. Garden and nature can help with stress-reducing factors that make recovery accelerated and strengthened, such as finding peace, feeling safe and have a space for reflection. Also conversations and activities are important elements for recovery in the horticultural therapy. Keywords we have used are: horticultural therapy, healing gardens, garden therapy, therapeutic gardens, green rehabilitation, restorative garden and stress related illness.