Nature-Based Art Heals and Enriches

Research shows that art with images of nature, even some abstract pieces, can have a positive impact on visitors, patients and healthcare professionals. Including nature-based art in healthcare facilities can improve the overall experience for anyone who walks in the doors.

Alison Hill, Monhegan Island, Maine

The Center for Health Design stresses evidence-based designs in healthcare.

“A large and growing body of evidence attests to the fact that physical environment impacts patient stress, patient and staff safety, staff effectiveness and quality of care provided in hospitals and other healthcare settings,” the organization writes.

“Basing healthcare facility planning and design decisions on this evidence to achieve the best possible patient, staff and operational outcomes is what evidence-based design is all about.”

Robert Wieferich, Cape Elizabeth No. 1

Architect Paul Lewandowski agrees, but he also points to the importance of interpretation in the process—a blending of art and science. 

“Rules of thumb are great, but you have to interpret them—you can’t make everything pastel, for example, or it’ll be too washed out,” says Paul. “We know that scenes of nature help people heal faster, but interpretations of nature can work too.”

“Lately, there’s a real movement towards references to nature rather than straight scenes of nature. Expressionist scenes of nature, for example, aren’t necessarily good for healthcare as a whole, but some of them are.”

MaineGeneral’s Natural Design

This is true for MaineGeneral’s facility in Augusta, which incorporates Paul’s experiential design. After the hospital opened in 2013, the Belfast Creative Coalition wrote that the design reflected a commitment to the idea that nature can help healing—with its natural light, stone terrace, garden, fountains and artwork from the likes of Maine-based nature photographer Jeanne Marie Coleman.

Jeanne Marie Coleman, Small Falls Lower Basin

For the design, Paul worked with Erin Anderson and the rest of the team at SMRT Architects and Engineers to create a palette of natural colors for each of the facility’s four floors, based on themes (i.e., fields, rivers, mountains), and then chose artwork to match each.

Paul said that while each floor has its own theme, the experience as a whole is a unified one—a single journey or narrative.

MaineGeneral Augusta (Courtesy of Windham Millwork)

“I design spaces because I want people to use them, enjoy them,” Paul says. “It’s not easy.”

Yet spaces that people want to use are the goal for experiential architects and designers like Paul and his colleagues at SMRT. And the movement isn’t isolated. Experience is the new buzzword in customer service and marketing circles as well. These days, it’s all about creating an experience.