Planting

Photo Design Features

• Attractive outdoor space directly accessible to patients, visitors, and staff.
• Windows to rear illustrate good visual access to the garden from inside.
• Bench seating to provide resting and orientation points with the courtyard.

Design Considerations and Awareness
Section xx discussed how landscaping and the integration of nature within the campus will enhance the healthful, positive and people-centred qualities of the hospital. However, it is important to reiterate the beneficial role of planting when it is threaded throughout campus

At a site scale landscape and planting can create landmarks, nodes and focal points for orientation and wayfinding. In terms of a dementia friendly hospital, planting can be used to make approach routes and entry points more recognisable, create opportunities for personalisation, and help mediate against external negative stimuli, such as glare and noise. Planting can also be used to create multisensory cues providing visual, smell, and tactile experiences that can help with orientation and wayfinding

UD Dementia Friendly Design Guidance

• Overall, the campus should create a calm, legible setting with careful use of planting to produce a therapeutic environment both outside and inside the building.
• Use planting that is familiar and recognizable to the person with dementia to personalise entrances and pathways.
• Use colourful and distinctive planting in strategic locations and destinations to create visual landmarks to help with wayfinding.
• In line with the creation of visual landmarks, use fragrant planting to reinforce wayfinding by providing aromas in certain key locations such as entrances or junctions along approach paths.
• Ensure planting does not cause excessive shadows on the ground which may be perceived as a step or cause other difficulties for people with dementia.
• Avoid plants that irritate the skin or are toxic if ingested.
• Carefully locate trees that shed excessive fruit or leaves so that these do not cause slipping or tripping on paths. Maintain planting to keep pathways clear.