Vernacular healing landscapes in Australian aged-care gardens

Abstract

Designing for people’s health and well-being is one important purpose for landscape design in healthcare environments. The concept of therapeutic landscapes has been applied widely in various healthcare settings. This research extends the concept of therapeutic landscapes in ordinary everyday context and explores the role of gardens in Australian aged-care facilities. Fieldwork shows aged-care residents reclaim the outdoor environment by actively shaping the landscape to create special meanings and embed memories in characterising their current living space. Findings suggest broadening the current understandings of therapeutic landscapes to incorporate residents’ vernacular healing landscapes. This paper addresses a gap in existing literature and introduces the importance of vernacular healing landscapes in aged-care facilities for its holistic reflection of older people’s landscape experiences and connection with residents' memories, which positively contributes to their health and wellbeing. It argues for future design to value and incorporate residents' vernacular healing landscapes in aged-care gardens.