Gardening in Rotterdam with Rotterdamers (introduction)

Erasmus Garden
(under construction)

The project is an initiative of Erasmus Gardens Tom Schneider of the Erasmus MC Sophia, Rini Biemans of Creative Management

------The belief that plants and gardens are beneficial for patients in healthcare
environments is more than one thousand years old, and appears prominently in Asian and
Western cultures (Ulrich and Parsons, 1992).
------During the Middle Ages in Europe,
monasteries created elaborate gardens to bring pleasant, soothing distraction to
the ill (Gierlach-Spriggs et al., 1998).
------European and American hospitals in the 1800s
commonly contained gardens and plants as prominent features (Nightingale, 1860).
------Gardens became less prevalent in hospitals during the early decades of the 1900s,
however, as major advances in medical science caused hospital administrators and
architects to concentrate on creating healthcare buildings that would reduce infection risk
and serve as functionally efficient settings for new medical technology.
------The strong emphasis on infection reduction, together with the priority given to functional efficiency,
shaped the design of hundreds of major hospitals internationally -- that are now
considered starkly institutional, unacceptably stressful, and unsuited to the emotional
needs of patients, their families, and even healthcare staff (Ulrich, 1991; Horsburgh,
1995). Despite the intense stress often caused by illness, pain, and traumatic hospital
experiences, little attention was given to creating environments that would calm patients
or otherwise address emotional needs (Ulrich, 2001).
A growing awareness has developed in recent years in the healthcare community
of the need to create functionally efficient and hygienic environments that also have
pleasant, stress reducing characteristics. An important impetus for this awareness has
been the major progress achieved in mind-body science. A substantial body of
research has now demonstrated that stress and psychosocial factors can significantly
affect society health outcomes.It also follows that conditions or experiences shown by medical
researchers to be stress reducing and healthful, such as pleasant soothing distractions and
social support, must become important considerations in creating new healthcare
facilities. The fact that there is limited but growing scientific evidence that viewing
gardens can measurably reduce patient stress and improve health outcomes has been a
key factor in the major resurgence in interest internationally in providing gardens in
hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
"Roger S. Ulrich, Ph.D."
------"production-reproduction", "Public-privet","market-family"- do not allow us to undertake projects with an ethic of care that reduces boundaries between architect and citizen. Could be the architect-citizen a single agent.

elements
Outdoor spaces designed by children would not only be fully naturalized with
plants, trees, flowers, water, dirt, sand, mud, animals and insects, but also would be rich
with a wide variety of playopportunities of every imaginable type. If children could
design their outdoor play spaces, they would be rich developmentally appropriate
learning environments where children would want to stay all day.

------Early experiences with the natural world have been positively linked with the
development of imagination and the sense of wonder.
------Wonder is important as it a motivator for life long learning.
------There is also strong evidence that young children respond more positively to experiences in the outdoors than adults as they have not yet
adapted to unnatural, man-made, indoor environments.
------The natural world is essential to the emotional health of children.
------Just as children need positive adult contact and a sense of connection to the wider human community, they also need positive contact with nature and the chance for solitude and the sense of wonder that nature offers.
------When children play in nature they are more likely to have positive feelings about each other and their surroundings.
------Outdoor environments are also important to children's development of independence and autonomy.
------Outdoor space allows children to gradually experiment with increasing distance from their caretaker.
------While the development of greater independence from toddlerhood to middle childhood can happen within the confines of indoor spaces, safe
space outdoors greatly adds to the ability of children to naturally experiment with
independence and separation, and the adult's willingness to trust the child's competence
which is essential for separation to happen.
"Randy White & Vicki Stoecklin"

plan

Baby construction: enjoying the green and the swops with the mother care