Restorative Memorials: Improving Mental Health by Re-Minding

Restorative Memorials: Improving Mental Health by Re-Minding"Restorative Memorials" is a report submitted to the Kansas State University Graduate School in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Landscape Architecture. This project combines the characteristics of memorials and restorative environments to create a new typology of commemorative space that would be imbued with deeper meaning, thus retaining greater significance for present and future generations. These "restorative memorials"

"Restorative Memorials" is a report submitted to the Kansas State University Graduate School in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Landscape Architecture.

This project combines the characteristics of memorials and restorative environments to create a new typology of commemorative space that would be imbued with deeper meaning, thus retaining greater significance for present and future generations. These "restorative memorials" would help communities remember while also improving mental health.

Design guidelines for these spaces informed the design of a park commemorating the ground-breaking work of the Menninger Clinic in Topeka Kansas, a national resource and world leader in psychiatric and behavioral health treatments.

If memorials were to serve as restorative environments, improving mental health, they could service future generations as a richer element in the landscape. Just as the past shapes the future, a restorative memorial can help shape how we remember the past.