310062 Health Design

Details
Forest & Landscape
Earliest Possible YearMSc. 1 year
DurationOne block
 
Credits15 (ECTS)
Course LevelMSc
 
ExaminationFinal Examination

written examination and oral examination

Portfolio Examination


All aids allowed

Description of Examination: The examination consists for the following parts: 1. Oral presentation of project work (paper and illustration plan) 2. The project work; paper and illustration plan 3. The student's ability to defend his/her project work and oral presentation 4. The student's capacity when he/she acts as opponent on fellow student's project work

Weight: 40% illustration plan 40% paper 20% oral presentation and defend



7-point scale, internal examiner
 
Requirement For Attending Exam- Handing in project work (paper and illustration plan)
 
Organisation of Teaching40% Theory in combination of excursion 60% Project work
 
Block PlacementBlock 2
Week Structure: A

Block 2
Week Structure: C
 
Teaching LanguageEnglish
 
Optional Prerequisites310027 Thematic Course: Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
310004 Landscape Analysis
It is a design course, which requires precious knowledge corresponding to at least one year participation in the landscape architecture programme.
 
RestrictionsMax. 50
 
Course Contents
Course Contents
The course vill give an increased insight into the importance of outdoor environments for human quality of life, comfort, health and well-being. It will, based on international literature, peer-reviewed research papers and on Nordic cases, give an international perspective on:
1. The concept of Health Design, origin, definition, status etc.
2. Explanatory models on the interaction between outdoor environments and human health
3. Health promoting characteristics of outdoor environments and health promoting outdoor activities
4. History, background, development and current status of health promoting city planning
5. History, background, development and current status of outdoor environments in institutional settings
6. Theories on healing mechanisms concerning healing gardens and horticultural therapy
7. What is health?
8. Use, needs and preferences for different user groups ( e.g. different age groups, patients etc.)
 
Teaching And Learning Methods
The teaching is inspired by 'Problem Based Learning'. The goal is to make the teaching into active learning and it is driven by challenging, open-ended problems, where the teacher takes on the role as a facilitator of learning. As a result a number of different methods will be used; lectures, excursions, experiencing exercises and project work. - Lectures will be held as basis for theoretical input. - Excursions are field trips where in some cases lectures are held and/or in some cases the specific outdoor environment is of focus for discussion. Here the students work in small collaborative groups in order to develop the students' further understanding. - Experiencing exercises is when the students meet actual users (e.g children in kindergartens and elderly people in nursing homes), and together will these people experience specific outdoor environments. A Project work runs through the whole course. The project work will end up in two products that are closely interrelated, illustration plan and paper. The goal is to develop or redesign an institutional environment for a specific user group. Here the students will transform all of their required knowledge into a detailed illustration plan. The design of the environment will be described and motivated for in the paper.
 
Learning Outcome
All over the world there is an increasing interest in research results and practice experiences showing the impact of the physical environment on people's health and well-being. The realization that good design, both indoors and outdoors, not only generates functional efficiency but also strengthens and improves health processes has given rise to a new branch of architecture, called Health Design. This should not be viewed as new discoveries but as rediscoveries or confirmation of a notion that has been considered quite self-evident for thousands of years. Ever since our early history there have been ideas to the effect that human health and well-being are influenced in a positive way by his spending time in natural surroundings - wild nature as well as enclosed gardens.

During 2007 researchers calculate that for the first time in history the majority of people in the whole world will live in urban areas. As a result people in the industrialized world are living their lives farther and farther away from nature, spending much of their time indoors. This may be connected to the fast raise in obesity, heart disease, diabetes II, osteoporosis, depression, stress and mental fatigue we now experience in the Scandinavian countries. An increasing number of governments around the world find an advantage of focusing on factors that determine health instead of the pathogenic diseases themselves, in that public health work will become more effective. Such a health policy means a shift in perspective towards an approach that will concentrate more on factors that stimulate people's own health capacities. In this course we view Nature as a health factor; both for improvement of ill health (healing gardens) and maintenance and fortification of good health (nature and urban green spaces).

After completing the course the student should be able to:
Knowledge:
- Seek, present and describe relevant theories (environmental psychology, landscape architecture and architecture )as relevant to the planning, development and understanding of health promoting outdoor environments
- Examine and analyse the varying needs, interests and preferences of different user groups with regard to health promoting outdoor environments, on the basis of gender, age, cultural context, social situation,
diagnosis and functional disability
- Examine and analyse the advantages and disadvantages of the interaction between institutional outdoor environments and specific health care activities
- Describe in detail how an institutional health promoting outdoor environment may be designed for different user groups, e.g. small children, elderly people etc.
- Present in detail practical and theoretical knowledge in the field Health Design to professionals and lay people.

Skills:
- Improve the understanding on the health promoting interaction between the patient, the environment and the activity
- Seek, read and analyze peer-reviewed scientific papers
- Design a health improving institutional outdoor environment for a specific patient/user group
- Write a paper, arguing (based on research) for the design of health improving institutional outdoor environment, in a correct way
- Using methods for analyzing health quality of the institutional outdoor environment
- Present research, theories, analyses and design visions in oral presentation

Competences:
- Work independently and self-directed in project work
- Cooperate efficient and communicative in group work
- Apply the course theories to related subjects in other courses and projects

 
Course Litterature
Main literature will be:
Cooper Marcus, C & Barnes, M. 1999. Healing Gardens. Therapeutic benefits and design recommendations. John Wiley & sons, New York.

Kaplan, R., Kaplan S. & Ryan, R.L. 1998. With People in Mind. Design and management of everyday nature. Island Press, Washington D.C.

Further literature, primarily based on peer-reviewed papers, will be collected and referred to.
 
Course Coordinator
Ulrika Karlsson Stigsdotter, uks@life.ku.dk, Forest & Landscape Denmark/Unit of Landscape, Phone: 35331786
 
Study Board
Study Committee NSN
 
Course Scope
lectures40
Excursions35
supervision80
project work160
preparation87
examination10

412