The "Embraces Garden", the Healing Garden of the Saint Carlo Borromeo Hospital in Milan (Italy)

The Saint Carlo Borromeo Hospital is located on the north-west suburbs of Milan, a transition area between the city center and the peri-urban agricultural area, characterized by the presence of residual agricultural areas, brownfield areas and peri-urban parks. The hospital has a good quantity of green areas, legacy of the past (the hospital opened in 1967), but not usable, not well maintained and besieged by wild parking cars. In this context, from the collaboration between the hospital (in particular the Department of Mental Health) and the University of Milan was born the idea to transform a part of the green areas in a “healing garden”, a green space specifically designed to promote and improve people health and well-being. In healing gardens it is possible to have a "passive" experience (stay in the garden) and/or an active involvement in and with the garden (gardening, rehabilitation therapy etc.). We have moved from the idea to the design and then, with patience and several changes due to the scarcity of funds, to the realization. The garden was opened in July 2015. In brief, the project includes two areas: the “synergic vegetable garden”, with a path that goes through cultivated pile flowerbeds and fruit trees, and the "Embraces Garden", a sinuous perceptual and sensory path through piles with color-specific herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees. The Saint Carlo healing garden has been designed to be used by patients and their families, but also by the staff who daily live the hospital. The "Embraces Garden" was specifically designed to stimulate an intimate contact with nature, using many plants with different colored in almost all seasons. The "Embraces Garden" is in physical continuity with the “synergic vegetable garden”, designed to encourage a more active interaction with nature, through specific horticultural therapeutic projects which will be organized by all interested departments.