If you’re looking for inspiration, don’t forget to check out the 202020 Vision project which regularly profiles inspirational urban greening projects around Australia.  One recently profiled project is the new Fiona Stanley Hospital  in WA. What’s different about this hospital is its emphasis on design and green space with an integrated landscape approach.

The hospital’s 6.5 hectares of green space, combines wetlands, streetscapes, plazas, courtyards and green roofs to provide:

• Overall precinct cohesion – knitting the nine separate buildings of the health campus together, and into the wider urban green space;
• Healing landscapes – promoting patient, staff and community health and wellbeing through access to nature; and
• Native habitat for local fauna.

The benefits of this approach for patients are access and visual connections to nature that can assist in alleviating stress, pain and time spent in care. For the hospital, this connection to nature will help increase staff satisfaction and performance; reducing absenteeism, turnover and operating costs.

The design retains and protects two separate conservation areas that surround the hospital. It establishes greenways to link the precinct habitat, using a variety of native species including plants salvaged from the site prior to clearing, as well as seeds and cuttings collected locally for propagation.

For more information and other 202020 Vision Projects: click here