Tapping into the therapeutic role of the natural environment, healthcare campuses across the country are creating a variety of inviting outdoor settings with new approaches to landscape design.

These shifting landscapes incorporate a variety of features, from healing gardens and outdoor therapy spaces to on-site ponds and walking paths, all aiming to deliver moments of delight, wellness, and respite.

Within these focal points, project teams are combining native plantings and vegetation that support energy- and water-saving initiatives with natural building materials and finishes to mirror the world outside. Additionally, such thoughtful details as building orientation that maximizes views bring in more daylight and help wayfinding, as well.

Healthcare Design explores some recent landscape and exterior designs that are delivering a delight to the senses and inspiring new approaches to planning and design.

Check out these projects:

St. Michael Medical Center

TriHealth’s Harold M. and Eugenia S. Thomas Comprehensive care Center

Elks Children’s Eye Clinic

Penn Medicine Radnor

Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital

Harris House Treatment and Recovery Center