In the 1970s and 1980s, Sweden held about 15-20 certified health resorts that wanted to improve peoples’ health with vegetarian food and alternative medicine. This essay aims to explore the popularity of health resorts through a patient’s perspective. What did the patients look for at the resort, which they could not find in the official health care? A basis for the analysis is Bonnie Blair O´Connor’s theory of Health Belief Systems. In short, it claims that all medical systems are equal, from a patient’s point of view. A patient in the 1970s and 1980s could turn to the Health Belief System of conventional medicine, or chose an alternative – for example the Health Belief System constituted by Swedish health resorts. The material for this survey comes from one of the most famous health resorts in Sweden, Föllingegården in the north of Jämtland. From 1976 to 1990 Mrs Lilly Johansson, who advocated a very strictly vegetarian diet to people with various health problems, ran the resort. The archives of Föllingegården have recently been discovered, and this is the first time someone looks at the patients’ bookings, journals and letters. The survey reveals that about three quarters of the patients were women, that the average patient was about 50 years old, and that he or she was most likely to be a white-collar worker. About half of the patients were explicitly ill, and suffered from different kinds of aches, rheumatism, allergies, eczema, bowel problems or other chronic disease. In their anamnesis, and in evaluation forms concerning their stay at Föllingegården, the patients reveal their motifs for coming to the health resort. Many of them had been let down by conventional health care. They were tired of heavy medication and/or careless doctors. At the health resort, they searched for a more personal contact with their healer and a more natural way of curing diseases and improve health. This essay shows that patients in the 1970s and 1980s contributed to the popularity of health resorts by trusting the health resorts with a wide range of health problems, by persuading doctors of the official health care to refer to and finance their stay at the health resort, and by taking responsibility for their own health in an era when official health care started to prove insufficient.

Techn. Hochsch., Diss.--Aachen, 2000.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

The intension of this dissertation was to investigate why architectural environments were not healing, but harming people, and what factors could be looked at in order to provide healing environments for mankind. The human living and working environments are contributing more to illness and the aesthetic, than to creating environments that comfort, engage and heal the human beings. Buildings needed to become more attuned to people’s physical and mental well-being and by providing an architecture that incorporates water and finds ways to heal while being functional. Nature’s principles incorporate networks of complexity while remaining harmonious and by looking towards, and using nature in architecture is where inspiration can be found for a solution. The aim of this dissertation was to create an appropriate architecture that respects nature, while providing the essential resourceful, sensitive, delightful and therapeutic environments for the betterment of those who suffer from illnesses. The challenge was that creating balance between architecture and nature is difficult but necessary for producing healing environments for human well-being. A research investigation was carried out in the form of a literature review that covered nature, water and architecture and the factors and elements that these categories contribute to healing. Precedents and case studies where investigated and analyzed to prove these theories of healing of a successful collaboration between nature and architecture. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted with medical professionals to establish the relevance of water in healing for humans through hydrotherapy. The research concluded that healing environments were possible and greatly enhanced when nature, water and architecture were combined. What can be contributed on a large scale is that healing environments is achievable and should be implanted in every society and city for the overall well-being of mankind, and specifically, can contribute medically to healing certain diseases and conditions. / Thesis (M.Arch.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alberta, 1998. / "Spring 1998." Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-269). Also issued online.

Wong Wing Kin Ken. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2005-2006, design report." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-66).

Turnpike building in Greenbrier and Monroe counties coincided with the period of their springs' greatest development and prosperity. The development of both the springs and the turnpikes in this region reflected the cyclical nature of the national economy. The springs of Greenbrier and Monroe counties at the heart of the antebellum Virginia Springs Tour provided a seasonal internal marketplace for the region. Turnpikes were built primarily to connect these springs with each other and with the state's major road arteries through southwestern Virginia. Without other internal improvements prior to the Civil War, this region fared comparably with the rest of western Virginia and the state as a whole in their bid for state assistance for turnpikes. Generally turnpike investments at both the local and the state level provided better access to the springs. Though inextricably connected through the springs tour, Greenbrier and Monroe Counties fared differently in their struggle for internal improvements. / Master of Arts

Research Project (M.B.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Research Project (Faculty of Business Administration) / Simon Fraser University. Senior supervisor : Dr. Jennifer C. Chang. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-41).

Research Project (M.B.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Research Project (Faculty of Business Administration) / Simon Fraser University. Senior supervisor : Dr. Jennifer C. Chang. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-41).