German theorist Christian Cay Lorenz Hirschfeld (1741-1792) wrote :
Hospitals should be situated outside and away from cities, to allow for garden space. Hospitals should be located away from busy urban areas in a healthy and positive and inspiring location, not in valleys … but on sunny, warm hilltops protected from the wind or on southern slopes on dry soil.
A hospital should lie open, not encased by high walls, not fended in by looming trees. The garden should be directly connected to the hospital, or even better, surround it. Because a view from the window onto blooming and happy scenes will invigorate the patient, a nearby garden also invites patients to take a walk.
The plantings, therefore, should wind along dry paths that offer benches and chairs. Clusters of trees are preferred to alleys of trees, which through the years will mature and meet at the top so that air will not circulate….
Sad conifers should not be used but trees with light and colored leaves and flowering and fragrant shrubs and flowers.. A hospital garden should have everything to encourage a positive outlook; everything in it should be serene and happy. No scene of melancholy, no memorial of mortality should be permitted to intrude. The spaces between the three groups could have beautiful lawns and colorful flower beds.
Noisy brooks could run through flowering fields, and merry waterfalls could reach your ear through shady shrubbery. Many plants with fortifying fragrances could be grouped together. Numerous songbirds will be attracted by the shade peace, and freedom. And their songs will rejoice many weak hearts.
As decorations you could… build seats with roof or a gazebo from which the view is magnificent.
Tapia 