When designing a project, the surrounding environment can have an important effect on the health of people spending time there. Look how relaxing this outdoor area is for instance.
The landscape surrounding your home, place of work, or any space you encounter plays a vital role in your physical and mental health. While you may not readily observe the changes in your well-being, they are certainly happening.
It is common practice to escape societal ills by spending time outside. Some will make their way to the seashore while others head for the hills and mountains. In any case, the reason for this is typically the feelings of stress relief and easy breathing.
The feeling that the “outdoors” brings some form of therapy is not some sort of mind trick. There are many research studies that show the beneficial health impacts of spending time outside. Why is it that we feel the need to travel far and wide to experience the benefits nature has to offer?
Landscape architecture can provide a place that encourages the various positive health outcomes of being outside. Whether in your backyard, a public park, or the walking trail outside your office, landscape designs encourage the use of outdoor space.
Ideas for Health-Focused Landscape Architecture
There are many ways you can create a landscape design that encourages people to get outside and enjoy the outdoors. We commonly build these elements into the landscape architecture in the 3D renderings that we do for our clients on their request.
Here are six simple, economical ways to transform any landscape into a place for healthy living.
1. incorporate Art
Art plays a large role in any garden but especially in a space focused on health and well-being. There are several ways to incorporate art into your health-centered landscape.
Sculptures are popular in healing gardens around the globe. The abstract art form can inspire creative thinking and provide a distraction from stress or anxiety.
Ceramic pots create a stunning centerpiece for a highlighted garden area. Often filled with plant life that loves to overflow its boundaries, the colors and shapes of pots draw the eye to a focal point.
Statuary promotes peace and calm in the garden. Often placed in a serene location, the stillness of a statue represents the ultimate goal of a healthy landscape – tranquility.
2. add the right Colors
There are multiple ways to play with color in a garden and not all are about plant choice. Lighting is often forgotten in the garden. Take your healing garden to a new level by installing solar-powered lighting to highlight gorgeous plants or allow you to enjoy the garden at night by lighting the pathway.
Choose plants that bloom at various times throughout the year to complement each other. This will help avoid the seasonal letdowns of a garden lacking color. Evergreen shrubs and trees promote year-round growth that will keep your garden attractive in every season.
3. include living things
Enticing fauna into your garden will help provide an uplifting environment that inspires hope and promise. Butterfly-friendly plants are a great way to attract butterflies, birds, and other forms of life. Here is a shortlist of plants that attract life:
· Aster
· Butterfly bush
· Coneflower
· Lavender
· Salvia
Place a humming bird feeder or other local bird-specific feeders to give them a reason to come to your garden. Once you are established as a safe, productive place for birds, more and more will visit. A garden full of living things is a lovely place to rejuvenate.
4. get in touch with Nature
Picture your favorite outdoor spot to “get away from it all.” What does it look like? Mimic this vision in your landscape. Boulders, a babbling water feature, and gravel pathways can all be easily installed for a natural-looking garden.
5. Pathways can be beautiful
Formal pathways lead you through the highlights of your garden and create a structure to build around. A path leading you to a quiet spot or particularly beautiful display will make your healing garden feel purposeful.
6. add places to rest
Benches and other outdoor seating provide the opportunity to sit and reflect in the peace of your garden. Consider installing small, watertight storage near your seating area to keep a throw blanket or set of pillows in.
7. water is soothing
The sound of moving water is one of the most soothing sounds you can include in your garden. Water features are very easy to install these days and do not always come with exorbitant costs. Even a small space can benefit from a water feature.
Time Well Spent
The investment, both financial and physical, in a garden that offers peace, serenity, and draws you into it is well worth the effort. Research has proven the value of time outdoors. Enjoy it with a backyard respite landscaped with health in mind.
If you have a design in mind and want to see how it will look in reality our architecture rendering service can help! Give us a call, or get in touch via our quote or contact forms to organize your landscape rendering plan. Our team of experts can help by adding elements into your designs you may never have considered, or by turning your fully formed ideas into beautiful renderings that will give you a sense of the healing nature of your project before you even get close to breaking ground.
Alex Smith
Manager & Co-Owner Render 3D Quick
Alex Smith is a manager and co-owner at Render3DQuick, with over 6 years’ experience project managing their large team of 3D rendering professionals. Alex is obsessed with architecture and is a CAD design specialist in his own right and an expert in the field of architectural visualization, 3D rendering, and virtual reality tours.
As the first point of contact when you get in touch with Render3DQuick, Alex loves sharing his knowledge and answering any questions you may have about architectural visualization or the latest technologies and techniques they utilize.
Connect with Alex on LinkedIn here.