Restorative Green Outdoor Environments at Hospital

Today, designers and especially landscape architects attempt to design outdoor hospital environments by taking into consideration the fact that one heals more quickly in a supportive atmosphere, environments that ameliorate stress and provides opportunities for positive escape from clinical settings (Ulrich et al., 2004). There is a substantial research evidence which indicates that having a view of or being in nature or green outdoor environments has a positive influence on the physical and mental wellbeing of users where patients can have a relaxing influence and reduce stress levels (e.g., Hendrich et al., 2008; Mroczek et al., 2005; Nilsson et al., 2011). In a current study by Faris et al., (2012) indicates that a hospital with outdoor environment surrounded by greenery were the most preferred by the users.

Many different theories are used, and together they build up the theoretical framework that we today rely upon. The Prospect-Refuge Theory (Appleton, 1975) claims that positive feelings are gained from adaptive functions of preferences regarding certain landscape characteristics. The studies which deal with the restorative, health-related effects and the human benefits derived from contact with nature consistently
refer to the Biophilia hyphothesis (Wilson, 1984) which suggests that humans tend to respond positively to nature. The Psycho-Evolutionary Theory (Ulrich et al., 1991) claims that emotional responses are instant and unconsciously triggered and have a major influence on attention and behavior (ibid). Attention Restoration Theory (ART) (Kaplan, 1995) characterizes psychological components that support a restorative environment which may help people to recover from depleted directed attention capacity. Project brief / client requirement The project is located at Serdang Hospital. The hospital is a government-funded multi-specialty hospital located in the district of Sepang in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. This hospital is located near Putrajaya, the Malaysian federal government administrative centre. The location of the hospital borders the South Klang Valley Expressway (SKVE) to the east and the medical faculty of Universiti Putra Malaysia to the west. Serdang Hospital, which Restorative Green Outdoor Environments at Hospital Shureen Faris Abdul Shukor & Noorizan Mohamed commenced operation on December 15, 2005, was built with the purpose of serving the roughly 570,000 population of Serdang, Putrajaya, Kajang and Bangi. It has a total area of 129,000 square metres and has 620 beds. Other unique features of this hospital include rooftop garden totaling 5 acres. The hospital is surrounded by a park measuring 45 acres (180,000 m2).

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