Healing Fragments

Healing Fragments seeks to repair fragments and cracks of the past site by using the logic of the Japanese art Kintsugi, which is an ancient art form used to repair broken pottery and in turn highlight its imperfections as beautiful. Kintsugi not only applied to the site’s history, its troubled past, and its broken organization, but also how patients have repaired their own cracks in terms of healing.

In order to repair the site, cracks were first identified. Cracks reflect previous building alignments and ordering principles as well as broken alignments with the urban grid. The existing site lacked connection to the surrounding environment and lacked an identity as a campus.

Fragments reflect historic land uses of the site. Utilizing an early aerial of the site, fragments were identified as farmland, urban core, and a picturesque grove. While there were many troubling thoughts on the treatment of mental illness at this time, the hospital did have a focus of creating working gardens and strolling parkland for patients to better connect with nature. This was an idea that Healing Fragments sought to restore. Gold, or the healing glue, shows the proposed intervention and how the cracks and fragments are glued together using circulation and vegetation.

Healing Fragments improves the environment by reducing impervious cover through utilizing permeable paving as well as removing large areas previously used for surface lot parking and increasing tree canopy coverage. Healing Fragments provides healing spaces that promote health such as the Yoga Garden, Sensory Garden, Zen Garden, and Working Garden to help patients connect with nature and their environment. Healing Fragments utilizes vegetation and berms to allow areas for public and private use as well as spaces for different user groups.

Healing Fragments shows how landscape architecture can utilize principles of Kintsugi to reference the past while building towards the future and creating a healing landscape meant to improve the health of the environment and the patients who live there.