The Architecture of Wellness: Healing Spaces for All
Healing spaces are so-called as there is medical evidence that patients get better, when they have views of nature. We need to move beyond big ugly hospital buildings with a small concrete ‘oasis’ of a few plants to proper healing spaces, both in medical settings and the natural world. A good example of a healing space is a public park, if done well. Or a litter-free seaside beach.
Healing Spaces is a project that has designed several projects. One hospital in Middlesborough has a healing garden with seating to celebrate ‘the gift of life’ for organ donors, and it has also designed a Critical Care Garden where patients in hospices can spend precious time with loved ones, away from clinical environments (and is also a space for staff to rest on breaks).
Read Healing Spaces, a book by a physician on how using place, space, sunlight and music can help people feel better quicker. Modern medical settings with stark white walls, jarring colours and sounds and those nonstop red neon lights going across the wall with information, are not conducive to health.
The medical world is making us sick with distractions and distortions (the charity Pipeline’s main campaign at present is to stop piped music in hospital, where bedridden patients literally have no escape).
Volunteer to plant healing gardens
Use no-dig gardening and fruit protection bags (over netting). Learn how to create pet-friendly gardens and wildlife-friendly gardens. Also read how to stop birds flying into windows.
American charity Hope in Bloom uses volunteers to plant healing gardens for patients (both men and women) healing from breast cancer and chemo. Founded by a woman who would tend the garden of her best friend of 50 years (after she had cancer), volunteers provide indoor and outdoor gardens free of charge, tailored to recipients’ residential space and lifestyle.
So far volunteers have transformed almost 200 spaces into hundreds of gardens, plants often donated from local garden centres.
Harefield Healing Garden (London) was designed in hospital grounds with input from patients, relatives and medical staff, after studies found that patients recover quicker, than when looking out over a brick wall.
There are long sweeping footpaths through generous beds of flowers, and a space to mingle, with curved benches to relax. There are raised flowerbeds with built-in seating and space for wheelchairs, scented flowers for sensory gardens, and seats nestled among plants, for privacy.
Horatio’s Garden is a charity offering gardens nationwide to spinal injury units, for patients who through accidents or illness, suffer traumatic spinal injuries, and therefore have a higher risk of mental health problems or suicide when suddenly facing life-changing circumstances. Already operating eight gardens, these include beautiful spaces and seating, wildlife-friendly plants and water features.
Maggie’s is an idea founded by a cancer patient and her husband, both landscape architects. With centres nationwide (next to NHS hospitals) and even a few abroad, these beautiful buildings offer somewhere away from clinical environments where patients and their families can relax or access expert help, and the centres all feature beautiful designed gardens too.
A parable on healing spaces
Nobody appear to know where this parable came from, or if it’s true. But it’s a good example of the power of healing spaces.
A man is a patient in hospital, and is very depressed, lying in a bed in a bare room. The man in the next cubicle (who he can’t see through the curtain) starts talking to him, and he is far happier, as he has a beautiful window view over a garden.
So each day he describes to his new friend the lovely grasses and flowers, the wildlife he can see etc. His friend begins to gradually feel better, and looks forward to the man describing the lovely views that he can’t see.
One morning, the man no longer hears the stories. The patient asks the nurse why, and she replies that the patient has gone. So he asks if he can move to the next cubicle. The nurse asks why.
The patient replies ‘Then I can see the beautiful views and start to feel better’. The nurse replies ‘But that room faces a blank wall as well. And anyway, the patient could not have told you about the views if there had been any – he was blind’.
Healthy town planning books
The Happy Design Toolkit is a book on how good architecture can help mental health in the community. Simple factors like lighting, comfort and access to nature and social interaction, can all impact how we feel.
The book features 100 hand-drawn illustrations (including roof gardens). And shows how ‘bumping into each other’ architecture can cure social isolation.
Precision Community Health is a wonderful book that every town council and GP could read. When Bechara Choucair was a young doctor, he learned that treating a patient for hypothermia did little good, if she has to spend the next night in the freezing cold.
As health commissioner of Chicago, he was determined to help the city’s most vulnerable populations. His approach led to lower rates of smoking, teen pregnancy and breast cancer. Health is about decent housing, jobs, parks, food and social support.
Happy City unlocks the secrets of living well in cities, and it’s not to do with how much you earn or what the climate is. He travels from Atlanta to Bogotá to Vancouver) to explore innovations that are transforming people’s lives.
Meet the Colombian mayor who turned the world’s most dangerous roads into an urban cycling haven, a Danish architect who created the world’s most walking-friendly city and New York transport commissioner who turned Times Square into a pedestrian paradise.
Urban Playground shows how town planners can move from car-dominated, noisy and polluted communities, – to create ones that are welcoming and walkable, that are safe for children to walk and play.
The author leads a global campaign for more child-friendly streets, towns and cities, and builds the academic case for reconnecting children with nature.
Community Medicine (what it is and how it helps)
Precision Community Health is the story of a medical doctor in the USA, who whilst treating a hospital patient for hypothermia, realised he was doing little good – if the patient was going to spend the next night in the freezing cold, due to unaffordable bills or being homeless.
We can’t keep people healthy, if they don’t have a roof over their head, and food on the table. Bechara Choucair
Once Bechara Choicair became health commissioner for Chicago, he embarked on an ambitious experiment, addressing the societal causes of disease, rather than focusing on bed-blocking in hospitals. Instead of applauding the launch of new supermarkets and Amazon warehouses that send communities further apart, he focused on four simple areas of wellbeing.
The result? Far lower cases of smoking, teen pregnancies and even breast cancer mortality. His book is basically a manual, for any other community to do the same. ‘Being well’ is not just about access to a GP. It’s about forward-thinking GPs creating programs like this, so they are less overwhelmed by ill patients in the first place.
Real health is about decent housing (but not destroying green space and wildlife to build it), enjoyable jobs, better public parks, affordable organic food and social support.
No-one has worked harder to improve urban public health than Bechara Choucair. It’s gratifying to see the innovations he pioneered in Chicago, making a difference elsewhere. His book is a must-read for anyone who cares about effective health policy. Rahm Emanuel
Bechara Choucair (a family doctor by training) was commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health from 2009 to 2014. He is currently senior vice president and chief community health officer at Kaiser Permanente.
A Similar Happening in South West England
Something similar happened in a south western town, around the time of the pandemic. While MPs and some GPs obsessed about beds and medicines, volunteers took turns to ensure local people had company (after lockdown), took them on shopping trips, and created public places for people to meet up.
What happened was that while elsewhere illness rates soared, here they dived, and the effects were more profound than people even giving up smoking and drinking.
What community medicine matters for public health
Community medicine is healthcare that starts where people live, learn, work, and age. It still includes clinics and GP appointments, but it doesn’t stop at the consulting room door. It links healthcare with local authorities, schools, housing teams, charities, and community groups, because many health problems have roots outside the NHS.
You can think of it like mending a leaky roof. Hospital care often deals with the drip on the floor. Community medicine fixes the tiles, so the drip doesn’t keep coming back.
The idea has old roots in social medicine and primary care, where doctors and nurses noticed a pattern: illness clusters where life is harder. Damp homes worsen asthma. Limited access to fresh food raises diabetes risk. Mistrust and misinformation can reduce vaccine uptake. Loneliness can make pain, anxiety, and poor sleep harder to manage.
Community medicine doesn’t replace hospitals. It reduces the flow of preventable harm that ends up there. It also helps people recover at home with the right support, rather than bouncing back to A&E.
Improving health for whole neighbourhoods
Traditional medicine focuses on the person in front of you, which matters. Community medicine adds a wider lens. It asks, “What’s happening across this street, this estate, this school?”
Local teams use everyday signals to spot patterns early. That might include GP trends (more inhaler requests), school attendance (more stomach bugs), or pharmacy advice needs (a spike in cough medicines). When those signals line up, teams can act sooner, not months later.
This approach supports health equity, which simply means a fair chance to be healthy. It’s not about treating everyone the same. It’s about removing barriers, so people aren’t punished by postcode, income, language, or disability.
How community medicine restores public health
- First, community medicine improves early detection. High blood pressure, for example, rarely hurts until it causes serious damage. Catch it early and you can prevent strokes and heart attacks. The same applies to diabetes risk, COPD flare-ups, and some cancers.
- Next, it speeds up support and follow-up. Missed appointments often look like “non-attendance” on paper. In real life, they can mean anxiety, poor literacy, a broken phone, or the cost of a bus fare. Community teams can bridge that gap with reminders, flexible slots, and practical help.
- It also works on healthier environments. Cold homes, mould, poor air quality, and unsafe streets shape health as much as medicine does. A prescription can’t fix a bedroom wall that’s black with damp. Joined-up local work can.
- Finally, it improves joined-up services, so people don’t repeat their story five times. That matters most for long-term conditions, mental health needs, and older adults.
Consider a mini scenario. A GP practice notices more children coming in with wheeze. The school reports higher absence in the same area. A community nurse visits a few families and hears the same story, damp flats, condensation, and broken extractor fans.
The local housing team inspects, repairs are prioritised, and families get advice on ventilation and heating support. Over the next months, fewer children need urgent appointments, and fewer parents miss work due to sudden flare-ups. No miracle cure, just sensible steps in the right place.
Stopping problems early, screenings, vaccines
That includes blood pressure checks in pharmacies, cervical screening and bowel screening reminders, and seasonal vaccines such as flu. COVID-19 boosters remain relevant for some groups, depending on current guidance and risk.
Cold homes raise infection risk and worsen breathing problems. Mould can trigger asthma. Low income can push people towards cheaper, high-salt foods. Busy roads can worsen air quality, especially for children. Social isolation can increase depression and make self-care harder.
Community medicine doesn’t promise to solve poverty. It can still reduce harm by linking people to warm home schemes, benefits advice, community kitchens, walking groups, and local stop smoking support. These steps improve day-to-day wellbeing, and they lower risk over time.
What good community medicine looks like
- Higher vaccine and screening uptake, especially in groups that miss out
- Fewer emergency flare-ups (asthma, COPD, diabetes complications)
- Easier access to mental health support, with clearer routes in and out
- Smaller health gaps between areas over time
- Better patient feedback, because people feel heard and helped
- Shorter waits for the right service, not just any appointment
