Urban bureau Big City Lab together with the Ministry of Veterans are launching a Therapeutic Garden at VDNKh in Kyiv. It will be a public space for recovery and sensory relief for both veterans and guests of VDNH.
The authors of the project note that the space will be aimed at improving physical, psychological, and social health and will work through visual, sound, and tactile contact with nature, as well as engaging in community, creativity, and bodywork.
This format is new for Ukraine, so the Urban Bureau’s specialists spent five months researching how to create therapeutic gardens: they studied similar spaces around the world and talked to experts from Europe and the United States. The project was developed together with a multidisciplinary team of specialists, as well as defenders, veterans and their families.
The concept of the future therapeutic garden at VDNH includes:
- Horticultural therapy for recovery through work with the land and plants
- A zone of bodily practices: yoga, ergotherapy and an adaptive sports ground
- An area for art therapy, lectures, workshops and group practices
- Individual areas for relaxation and unloading
- A zone for children whose parents participate in the sessions
In Ukraine, where the number of people in need of rehabilitation is increasing every day, a therapeutic garden can become an important part of the rehabilitation and post-rehabilitation infrastructure.
Read also: Life after the frontline: programmes and opportunities for veterans
