History and evolution of the healing gardens: Investigating the building-nature relationship in the healthcare setting

Healing gardens, a longstanding feature of medical institutions, have garnered attention from scholars for their health-promoting properties across various stages of research. Through a historical literature review and contemporary case analysis of healing gardens, this research investigates how to achieve therapeutic integration by fostering effective connections between buildings and nature through typological design. Combined with qualitative and design-driven research methodologies, including the use of visualization tools such as drawings, models, and images, six models of building-nature integration in contemporary healthcare architecture are identified. This article bridges a research gap in the field of healing garden design and concludes by demonstrating that “typology” is only a design strategy according to context and building performance. In addition to positions of healing gardens, critical factors such as spatial organization, aesthetics, and sustainability, incorporating elements such as accessibility, readability, comfort, and ecological factors, must be carefully considered to achieve integration. •It explored the evolving dynamics of the building-nature relationship in hospitals within Western cultural contexts.•It identified the design techniques of healing gardens from Antiquity to the Modern period through historical documents.•It summarized six healing garden typologies in contemporary healthcare, illustrating key forms of building-nature integration.•It bridged the research gap in healing gardens, offering a novel interpretation of contemporary building-nature integration through case studies.•It observed that "typology" only serves as a design strategy contingent upon context and architectural performance.