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SAH Conference 2017 - Glasgow

  • lilyjencks
  • Jun 15, 2017
  • 1 min read

Lily Jencks gives a talk for the Society of Architectural Historians at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow: "Maggie's Cancer Centre Gardens: Herbs, Habitat and a Search for Deep Meaning"

Gardens have provided therapeutic use for many centuries. Early physic gardens had an area for growing medical herbs called hortus medicus. Since the 1950s ecological sciences have foreground the importance of environmental health, with Ian McHarg’s seminal book Design with Nature insisting a healthy community is designed in harmony with its ecological setting, including non-human habitat. More recently gardens have been instrumentalised for hospital environments, as the view out to a garden has been proven to help patient recovery. Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres, originally founded by Charles Jencks, provide support for anyone affected by cancer. Designed by world-renowned architects and landscape architects, Maggie's Centres provide a carefully considered environment for the provision of complimentary Cancer treatments on National Health Services hospital sites. This paper will look at the gardens and architecture of four Maggie's Centres as a new typology for therapeutic design. There is mounting evidence that a landscape is a primary driver in the health and wellbeing of communities. Beyond considering therapeutic gardens as a place for growing herbs, or the creation of habitat, this paper considers that gardens can also be therapeutic in meaning and symbolism. As opposed to other landscapes such as wild reserves, or agricultural fields, a garden’s primary purpose is to delight humans. The possibilities of therapeutic gardens are to contain meaning that connect us to or place in the Universe.


 
 
 

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NEWS

December 2020 Lily Jencks on Super Jury at World Architecture Festival. November 2020 Lily Jencks Judging Panel RIBA Silver Medal. October 2020 Talk with Lily Jencks @MSCTY_SPACE part of London Festival of Architecture "Unseen Architecture"- 19 March 2020 Talk with Lily Jencks @ Clemenger Auditorium, Melbourne for "Transformative landscapes: Designing the healthy city" - October 2019 Ruins Studio wins the ABB Leaf Award in the category "Best New Start-Up Practice Project" -June 2019 LJS Quintessentially English: What does it mean to be Native, listed as 1 of 10 unmissable events and exhibitions @ London Festival of Architecture 2019 - 22 June 2019 Talk with Lily Jencks at Cabot Square for 'Quintessential English Garden' as part of the LFA - February 2019 Lily Jencks Studio winner @ SURFACE DESIGN AWARD in the category"Housing Interior Surface" with the project Powis Cloud 

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