Plant Science & Landscape Architecture Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2797
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Item A LANDSCAPE DESIGN FOR HEALTH AND WELLNESS AT THE FRIENDS HOUSE RETIREMENT COMMUNITY(2020) Rahmati, Afrouz; Sachs, Naomi Alena; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Nature can play a vital role in people’s health. The need to access nature, and the barriers to doing so, change with each stage of life. Research highlights the importance of access to the outdoors and engagement with nature for older adults in achieving physical and psychological well-being. As people live longer and the senior population grows, there is increasing demand for well-designed residential communities that maximize residents’ health and quality of life. It is particularly important to find solutions that afford access to nature for those facilities. This thesis explores the role that landscape architecture can play in improving the quality of life for seniors at residential facilities, retirement centers and nursing homes. The project employs research-informed strategies for providing safe, easy and rewarding access to nature at the Friends House Retirement Community in Sandy Spring, Maryland. A literature review, site visits, and site inventory and analysis led to development of a design proposal that affords a restorative outdoor environment for Friends House where residents can engage with nature and each other. The site’s significant natural and cultural resources are preserved and amplified.Item ENGAGING CHILDREN IN HAITI: UTILIZING FOUND MATERIALS AND PROVEN TECHNIQUES TO GROW FOOD AND FILTER WATER(2015) Trobman, Harris Brian; Ellis, Christopher; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The focus of this thesis is the design and implementation of a community health project at a new school campus for 600 students in St. Louis Du Norde, Haiti. The design harvests and filters rainwater to drinking water standards, grows nutritional vegetable crops on secure rooftops, creates social space, and recycles old tires, plastic bottles and rice sacks that otherwise pose a massive solid waste problem in Haiti. The processes are also taught to the students so they can take and use the planters at home. The materials for building the growing containers and the growing media are all free and made from local wastes (tires, plastic bottles, rice sacks, manure, soil etc.). They are easy to build and free to construct making them accessible to even to the poorest and neediest families in Haiti. The idea is to develop easily replicable and desirable solutions to the basic health needs.Item Healing Invisible Wounds: Landscapes for Wounded Warriors Suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)(2013) Ashmun, Sarah C.; Sullivan, Jack; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Characterized by pervasive symptoms of intrusion, numbing, and hyperarousal, coping with PTSD can be a tenacious and lifelong challenge for sufferers (Cahill and Foa 2010). Given the recent surge of war veterans resulting from Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom with a high prevalence of PTSD, landscapes may provide a free and accessible means for veterans to successfully cope with their PTSD symptoms and seek treatment. The intention of this project is to merge holistic therapies for PTSD with successful landscapes for trauma patients into the creation of adaptable design principles. Guiding Principles for PTSD will be incorporated into the design of a Healing Woodland for wounded warriors at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, while also providing potential solutions for other sites aiming to incorporate holistic therapies for PTSD into the landscape.