Therapeutic Gardens: Design for Healing Spaces

Increasingly landscape architects, garden designers, and healthcare professionals are asked to create gardens that meet the physical, psychological, emotional, and social needs of a wide range of users. Landscape architect Daniel Winterbottom and occupational therapist Amy Wagenfeld present a collaborative approach that successfully translates the evidence-based principles of therapeutic design into practice using case studies from around the world. This practical guide demonstrates how gardens support learning, movement, well-being, and mental and psychological health. This second edition has been thoroughly updated throughout to include pandemic and mental health design, trauma-responsive design, designing for neurodivergence, and more. Beautifully designed with over 250 color images throughout, it also includes chapter introductions, summaries, case studies, and personal vignettes. This book is essential for professionals and students in landscape architecture, planning, design, healthcare, and mental health fields.

About the Author

Daniel Winterbottom , FASLA, RLA, is a landscape architect and professor of landscape architecture. His work focuses on the design of therapeutic environments to address inequities and challenges for those impacted by trauma, mental illness, and displacement. He has created supportive environments for communities of garbage pickers, war victims, and refugees and in prisons.

Amy Wagenfeld, PhD, OTR/L, SCEM, FAOTA, is Principal of Amy Wagenfeld | Design and is on faculty in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington. Her work focuses on inclusive and trauma- and sensory-responsive design for people of all ages, abilities, preferences, and walks of life.