Title: Theory and practice of building a healing garden based on relieving anxiety

Biography:

Zhang Guanhao is a postgraduate student in the Master in Landscape Architecture program, at Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Design. Under the guidance of the Aromatic Plant Research and Development Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, he has participated in the design of an anxiety-relieving healing garden in Jinshan District, Shanghai, especially focusing on the planning and design of the concession area, as well as the measurement and data analysis of different physiological indicators such as blood pressure and thermal infrared rays of the human body on the garden volunteers. He is also very interested in the positive effects of essential oils from aromatic plants on human health.

Abstract

With the rapid development of China's economy and society, people in many industries are facing great mental stress. Continuous mental stress not only brings mental, sleep, and eating disorders, but also aggravates those who already have underlying diseases. The number of such people in China has been rising, and traditional medical means cannot solve these symptoms effectively, so people are looking forward to a natural lifestyle that is close to meditation, soothing, and easy to use to solve the dilemma.

The Aromatic Plant Research and Development Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University has been engaged in aromatic plant fragrance substances extraction and analysis, the health effects of essential oils, and the research of healing gardens for more than 20 years. We found that if we used specific aromatic plants in a healing garden, the fragrance substances to fight anxiety and lower blood pressure will be more effective than the essential oils themselves. The center has built healing gardens for blood pressure or anxiety in the past and has measured different physiological indicators such as blood pressure and thermal infrared rays on volunteers, all showing significant results. Based on this, our team has designed and built an anxiety-relieving healing garden in Jinshan District, Shanghai. We combined the healing effect of specific fragrance substances of aromatic plants such as Jade hairpin, mugwort, and motherwort with hardscape through this case. We set up a series of contents such as an entrance buffer zone, catharsis zone, water listening, and fish watching zone, climbing view zone, confession zone, meditation zone, and sunset viewing zone to realize the combination of smell, vision, and garden behavior, and gradually release anxiety in stages to achieve a healing effect. Unlike the previous case, this time we set up a "confession area". Psychologists Pennebaker and Larson found through their research that confession is an indispensable method to relieve anxiety. We, therefore, designed a special area in the project for visitors to talk to each other, and also designed different levels of "talking" to promote the improvement of visitors' emotions to the greatest extent.