Bloom
+Selected in the top 4 projects in the 1st/2nd year category at the 2023 CASA-ACÉA Student Work Showcase
Location Hamilton, ON, Canada
Program Art + Horticulture Therapy Centre
Course 2B Design Studio (Spring 2022)
Supervisor Lola Sheppard
Situated between St. Joseph’s Healthcare West 5th Campus for Mental Health Services and the dramatic drop of the Niagara Escarpment, Bloom aims to link the two, focusing on providing alternative therapy methods to mental health patients and also healing gardens to visitors, staff and the general public. There are two distinct yet connected methods of therapy here: First, horticulture, or the act of gardening, where the patients actually plant the site and help maintain the grounds. Second, art, where nature becomes the palette for creating artwork. In this way and through sensory engagement with plants, patients experience a deep connection to the landscape and see themselves in the space. Ultimately, as the flowers bloom, their patients are to bloom with them, one at a time.
Originally a large parking lot and an unused field, the goal was to transform the site into separate healing gardens that would each serve a different psychological and botanical purpose and invite different sensory experiences. Also, by positioning the building and parking lot on the old parking grounds, damage on the earth is limited. Finally, using the site conditions and users’ experience as a guide, different areas are planted as either meadows, woodlands or elevated plantings.
