DESIGN CONSIDERATION AND CONSTRUCTION PROCESS OF CHILDREN THERAPEUTIC GARDEN Ismail Said Associate Professor Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia b-ismail@utm.my Proceedings 2 nd International Conference on Construction Technology CONTEC-2003, 13-15 October 2003, pp. 209-218. Keywords: Therapeutic garden, Regressive behaviour, Garden design, Construction Process ABSTRACT Hospitalisation often erodes the feelings of toddlers and young children causing regressive behaviours and stress, which result in reduced cognitive performance, helplessness, restlessness, crying, anxiety, and elevated blood pressure. Having the ill children experiencing a garden setting, either in a passive or an active mode, can arouse their senses that nurture their inductive and deductive, motor-impulses development and reflective thinking capabilities. These interactions have resulted in psychological peacefulness and adjustment by the children including being more cooperative toward medication, less crying, more active and cheerful, and more obedient to caregivers. The outcomes are discovered in an experimental research done in year 2002 involving 360 paediatric patients experiencing the therapeutic gardens at two nucleus hospitals in Malaysia. Six design factors are considered to construct the garden: (1) spatial organisation and circulation, (2) garden setting, (3) sensory stimulation, (4) interaction of activities, (5) planting layout and composition, and (6) garden accessories. The garden is constructed in four steps including (1) demolition of existing garden, (2) preparation of base ground, (3) installation of garden accessories, and (4) planting work. The basis of constructing an effective garden for psychological well-being of ill children is relating the physical characters of the garden to the sensory stimulation of the children. 1.0 EFFECTS OF HOSPITALISATION TO CHILDREN The effects of hospitalisation have seen to cause regressive behaviours among toddlers and young children. To young patients, the hospital environment is seen as an unfamiliar setting that may inflict pain and segregation from their families. The sight of people on gurneys and the complicated apparatus required for treatment terrify both the very young and the adolescent (Lindheim et al., 1972). Prevailing odours of antiseptic such as iodine and povidone, detergents and tetraethyl spirit used in the paediatric ward scare toddlers and young children, especially for the first time patients. They may associate the alien smell with pain and suffering. Staying in the ward with other patients whom they have never seen or met before also compounds to the terrifying experience. A cry from another 1