Coaniquem is a nonprofit pediatric burn treatment facility based in Santiago, Chile. Our challenge is to envision innovative and cost-effective ways to create engaging outdoor environments and systems that will support healing and nurturing atmosphere within the existing campus of COANIQUEM in Northern Chile. Together with the patients and staff, transdisciplinary student teams are challenged to co-create playful and therapeutic environments that will welcome young burn patients and their families at COANIQUEM’s satellite campus in Antofagasta which is located in the Atacama Desert. Atacama desert is the driest land on earth and highly exposed to the sun. In order to protect burn patients while utilizing solar energy, we need to design a solar shading system that connects the whole campus.
The Healing Garden is the result of a co-creation in Safe Niños 2019 to expand COANIQUEM’s pediatric burn center campus in Northern Chile, to add housing and services for both pediatric patients and seniors, along with public green spaces to connect across generations.
This project has enabled us to travel to Chile to do research about the desert environment and to talk with the patients and staff. The Healing Garden creates outdoor social spaces to support the healing of young burn patients, in a community shared with older adults living in senior housing, where both groups can contribute and engage with each other.
The Healing Garden’s environmentally responsible and culturally considered approach integrates native sensory landscape, indigenous Chilean design principles, and inclusive, accessible spatial design. The efficient solar orientation, energy, and sunshades provide natural cooling and offer sun protection essential for burn patients as their skin heals. The accessible garden beds enable our villagers to grow plants and tend the garden with playful animal friends that exist in all Coaniquem campuses. This project would be impossible without the generous guidance of Penny Herscovitch, Dan Gottlieb, Stella Hernandez, Dr. Rojas Zegers, Dr. Jorge Rojas–Goldsack, Hernan Ugarte Prieto, and faculties in ArtCenter.