Landscape’s role in reducing the cycle of trauma.
The idea that landscape plays a role in people’s health and healing is powerful, and is always at the forefront of my mind. With every project there is an opportunity to reflect on how our landscapes provide an opportunity to enrich the wellbeing of the people who pass through, live in, and casually enjoy the spaces we design. One of our studio’s strengths is the design of landscapes for biotech research and medical facilities. This focus has honed our team’s sensitivity to crafting multi-sensory designs that provide respite, stimulate the senses, and allow people to recharge. Yet, a project that we are currently working on in Alameda, CA has opened my eyes to recognizing how the notion of “wellness” can at times be a generic catchall at best, and at worst biased and insensitive. The term doesn’t fully capture the critical role that landscape has in providing demonstrable care and emotive support for people who have endured trauma in their lives.
The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration defines trauma as, “an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or threatening and that has lasting adverse effects.” The reality is, these may or may not be experiences we have personally lived; but for many underserved populations it is pervasive. Studies report that 100% of women and 90% of men who are homeless have experienced trauma in their lives. Trauma-informed landscape design means radically breaking with our own experience, perspective, and conventional design wisdom in order to understand the built environment from the point of view of a person who is experiencing or has experienced trauma.
UCSF’s Center to Advance Trauma Informed Healthcare envisions, “the health care system moving from trauma-inducing to trauma-reducing” and it is absolutely essential that the healing environments we create make the shift as well by not compounding trauma by perpetuating a design vernacular that triggers, overwhelms, and induces fear. The physical environments we create affect identity, dignity, self-worth, empowerment and can set the foundation for healing.
Physiological and emotional states are linked to the physical environment, and while Architecture has done some inaugural work to investigate what it means to build healing environments, there is very little information about landscape. We draw on exemplary work by Shopworks Architecture, Group 14 Engineering, and The University of Denver’s Center for Housing and Homelessness Research. Their research and white paper is a great resource in understanding Trauma Informed Design, providing a beginning framework for how to design healing spaces.
And while there is much, much more research needed, as practitioners we must make design decisions that inspire safety, trust, transparency, collaboration, empowerment, voice, and choice, not to mention historical, gender, and cultural differences. These considerations may include things like;
Reduce stimuli. Creating spaces that are calming, that add visual interest without overwhelming.
Design for all the senses. Multi-sensory planting, use of natural materials, and resisting to utilize materials that evoke stress– such as cinder blocks for instance.
Provide opportunities to connect with the natural world. Hands-on gardens, walking circuits, bird feeders provide a much needed reconnection with nature.
Promote self-reliance. Moveable furnishings that can be configured to meet immediate needs and provide flexibility and agency.
Provide clear organizational and spatial layouts. Clear sightlines and private spaces within shared open spaces give residents the opportunity to regroup, reconsider, and re-engage based upon their emotional needs.
Our project, the Alameda Medical Respite and Wellness Center, is a rare opportunity to create, from the ground up, a model for transformational care that promotes health, recovery, well-being, and dignified end-of-life care for people experiencing homelessness. This ground-breaking facility will provide a 50-bed medical respite clinic for people who are currently unhoused, and a resource center for those who are homeless or facing homelessness.
Creating welcoming, flexible spaces that are physically clear and calming anchor the landscape design. Smaller scaled courtyards are integrated into the footprint of the building to provide quiet spaces for dining, talking with medical providers, and other forms of quiet gathering. The landscape is designed to provide a sanctuary for the patients and the staff, with its zen gardens and circuit pathways, but still maintains an expression of joy and liveliness through brightly colored plant palettes and vibrant, inviting furnishings. At Mantle, we will continue to invest ourselves in understanding how best to create landscapes that support, heal and provide respite from the point of view of all – especially those in underserved communities whose trauma and life experiences have been overlooked by the design community.
To find more resources on Trauma Informed Design, visit traumainformeddesign.org. And to learn more about the project, please visit Alameda Medical Respite and Wellness Center
Image © Ankrom Moisan Architects