With the increasing prevalence of mental illness, there is an ever-growing need for supportive and rehabilitative social and health services and facilities. In many countries, the healthcare infrastructure, transitional services and communities are isolated from one another, creating physical and mental barriers to rehabilitation. Therapeutic landscape research suggests that outdoor spaces can facilitate rehabilitative healing, foster community support and self-empowerment. Design focused on facilitating preventative and rehabilitative health may bridge the gap between treatment at the institutional level and day-to-day living environment, by supporting the well-being of vulnerable people. In this paper, the literature as well as individual case studies are explored to better understand how therapeutic environments may enable the built infrastructure and transitional landscapes to fruitfully coexist. Findings suggest that suitable urban integration of services through therapeutic landscapes can provide a catalyst for the well-being of the wider community, mediating healthcare stigmas.

© Copyright 2017 NCEUB. The morbidity rates in populations of older persons are rising in parallel with increases in life expectancy. Increases in the numbers of older persons, many of whom will be physically dependent, will challenge communities both economically and socially. To compensate for this health loss and the subsequent demands placed on the health care system, there is a growing demand for effective preventative public exercise interventions to enable the ageing population to maintain independence and enjoy a healthier lifestyle. The provision of age-appropriate playground and exercise equipment for older persons has been gaining international popularity and is expected to become increasingly popular among local governments as a direct result of rhetoric relating to the development of age-friendly cities. Using a multidisciplinary lens, this project maps desired rehabilitation outcomes with exercise equipment design and landscape architecture. It seeks to identify both physical and motivational strategies that are most successful in maintaining good health and well-being in old age. Findings suggest that there is demand for open public space interventions that can safely train balance, muscular strength, and cardiovascular fitness. However, there is a lack of health research examining the usefulness and the sustainability of currently available equipment. There is also a necessity to address participation barriers and manage potential adherence issues that prohibit older persons from engaging in beneficial physical activity.

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The outdoor environment offers an important platform for engaging older adults from a variety of social, cultural and ethnic orientations for the purpose of improving or maintaining their physical and mental health as well as facilitating their social and cultural connections. Using a multidisciplinary lens, this study looks at the requirements and potential of a more inclusive landscape design that acknowledges different modes of health, recovery and rehabilitation, drawing from both the past and the future and providing suggestions on how more efficient and culturally appropriate ways of maintaining health and social connectivity can be achieved in later life. KeywordsSeniors health • Urban environments • Therapeutic environments • Landscape architecture • Outdoor exercise • Health and wellbeing * Bruno Marques

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