TO H-E-A-L
A Senior-Oriented Healthcare Campus with Multilayered Therapeutic Trails and Plazas
Fall 2021 @ USC
South Los Angeles, California
The project fills the missing gap that the older population in the community lack accessibility to healthcare programs by integrating an outpatient clinic, a 75+ lifelong housing and a dementia memory care building. Buildings and landscapes have become a blended system to create a therapeutic and dynamic healing environment. It creates fluid movements in circulation, visual connection and spatial experiences. The public-interest design aims to fulfill needs of different age groups to serve a larger neighborhood, so multi-layered therapeutic elements are defined to differentiate multiple user groups from one another.
Inspired from healing garden typologies in California and European countries, the project takes the dendritic shape as the basic language. It takes the extensive farmers markets and physical therapy plazas as the central activity node to activate the entire site and interact with visitors from various directions.
Site analysis and formal diagrams
Therapeutic trails for different user groups
The primary concept is expressed through therapeutic trails going north-south to indicate a sense of continuation and destination as people finally enter a housing garden. The trails target different user groups regarding their different movement speeds. So people with various intentions do not interrupt each other and everyone could enjoy a therapeutic experience.
Ground Level Plan
Outpatient Clinic
The outpatient clinic building takes a “hospitable healthcare” approach to create a healing environment in which patients feel secured by staying in familiar, supportive and exclusive spaces. It aims to ease stress and anxiety imposed on patients by incorporating elements from the hotel. There’s a collection of neutral earth tones to eliminate the sense of being at a hospital. Interior design follows the same dynamic language as the gardens, including furniture, wall finishes, light, skylights and a wayfinding system.
Therapeutic Tails And Healing Gardens
The Stretch Trail: slow movements to recover from treatments
The Running Trail: fast movements
Physical Therapy Plaza: heal through exercise
Farmers’ Market: central node for social interaction
Retail programs as a filter to mimic the adjacent typology
75 + Lifelong Housing
The self-containing garden is the end of therapeutic trails that leads people to the organic outdoor spaces to interact and exercise in an inclusive environment. Public programs on the first floor are fragmented in dentritic follies, so people could enjoy a good view with the central landscape spine and the nature.
Memory Care Building
The memory care building contains tranquil public spaces serving the dementia residents only. It also creates visual connection with the nearby recreation center and sports fields. It overlooks the central landscape spine, while being embedded inthe forest to provide privacy. Thus, the project brings a spiritual link with the local neighborhood.
