{"id":13222,"date":"2015-03-19T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/architizer.wpengine.com\/sunbrella-future-of-shade-wellness-garden\/"},"modified":"2022-05-10T10:25:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T14:25:41","slug":"sunbrella-future-of-shade-wellness-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.arc.ht\/blog\/practice\/materials\/sunbrella-future-of-shade-wellness-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Enter Your Design for Health and Wellness in the Future of Shade Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the third year running, Architizer is excited to partner with Sunbrella for the Future of Shade Competition<\/a> to design beautiful spaces using fabric. With the growing interest and increasingly diverse range of entries in the past two editions of the annual competition, this year sees its expansion to three distinct categories \u2014 Humanitarian<\/b>, Wellness Garden<\/b>, and Building Shade<\/b> \u2014 and three grand prize winners. Whether you’re an architect or a designer, a professional or a student, enter now<\/a> for a chance to win one of the three $10,000 grand prizes \u2014 we’re looking forward to seeing what you come up with!<\/h4>\n

The Future of Shade Competition is now open, and with the introduction of three categories for the third edition, we\u2019re excited about the opportunity to explore each category in more detail. We’ve previously looked at inspiration for the Humanitarian<\/b><\/a> category; now we bring you a closer look at the Wellness Garden<\/b> category.<\/i><\/p>\n

The Wellness Garden category includes outdoor settings that promote wellness and healing. This could include a public space, a private garden, part of a healthcare campus, or anything in between \u2014 in short, any outdoor space that is designed to improve users\u2019 overall well-being. This isn\u2019t necessarily a building, though it might be attached to a hospital, nursing home, or rehab facility and may be intended either for recreation or relaxation.<\/p>\n

The genre presents a major opportunity for landscape architects to contribute to global trends for people who want to live more healthy lifestyles. Even as people look for opportunities to spend time outside, they also require places that are protected from the sun but are not indoors. Similarly, outdoor exercise areas serve not only as public fitness centers, but as community spaces that foster a culture all their own, especially in temperate climates.<\/p>\n

\n\t\n\t\n<\/div>\n
Image courtesy Foster and Partners<\/i><\/p>\n

For example, new methods of healing and treatment often incorporate outdoors for recovery from illness or even addiction. Maggie’s Centres offer support and dedicated recovery facilities for cancer patients and their families. Architects such as Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and Thomas Heatherwick have been commissioned to design recovery wards for the foundation. Foster and Partner’s scheme is organized around a central circulation route and will be constructed of natural materials like wood to create a welcoming atmosphere. The covered mezzanines serve as a series of shaded gardens.<\/p>\n

\n\t\n\t\n<\/div>\n
Palomar Medical Center. Image via AIA<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

In keeping with the trend, the AIA\u2019s Academy of Architecture for Health recently recognized the Palomar Medical Center<\/a> in Escondido, Calif., by CO Architects<\/a> with a National Healthcare Design Award. A 35-acre campus that includes a 360-bed acute-care hospital, the Palomar incorporates garden spaces at every level of the 11-story nursing tower and a green roof that extends the landscape and improves views. These buildings that integrate landscaped therapeutic gardens<\/a> into the building plan essentially blur the lines between inside and outside, making them fertile ground for architects, landscape architects, and shading designers.<\/p>\n