The mental health of college students is a growing concern, and for good reason: college can be a stressful time for most students. Around 40 percent of college students that utilize campus counseling centers present with anxiety, and around 36 percent with depression.
“As we moved into this year, the need for students to have outdoor spaces where they can be mindful, create peace for themselves, and have outdoor instruction, concerts, and activities became clear, and there isn’t anything like this on UK’s campus.”
Ashley Hinton-Moncer, UK Student Wellness Director
While nature is not a cure-all, green space is good for mental health! According to NASA, it can encourage exercise, provide spaces for socializing, decrease noise and air pollution, and provide a respite for over-stimulated minds. The more time spent in green space, the greater the mental health benefits!
This ongoing project, Designing for Wellbeing: Mindful Oasis aims to tackle student health and sustainability simultaneously by designing and developing construction documents for a mindful outdoor space between the Gatton Student Center and Patterson Office Tower. Led by Landscape Architecture student Jake Rose and Architecture student Lade Akinyemiju, the design will utilize the existing sloped topography and existing vegetation, including a short walking path that leads to various seating and platform areas. Within this dedicated space, a wide variety of wellness practices will be able to be enjoyed, from mindful walking to group guided meditation to individual mindfulness practices.
“The inception of the project began with the goal of wellness,” says Ryan Hargrove, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, “We defined that as not only social, but emotional wellness, and the different features on the site came out of a desire to address that broad spectrum of wellness on campus.”
The site’s unique topography has presented both challenges and inspiration to the project. The steep hills, which have so far evaded construction, also allow some of the design features to flourish in a way they would not be able to on flat land, like the nature-inspired wellness deck and overlook, nestled in the canopies of mature trees.
The team hopes to propose a set of construction documents for bidding and eventual construction in the future.
This project was funded by the Sustainability Challenge Grant, a collaborative effort between the President’s Sustainability Advisory Committee, the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment, and the Office of Sustainability, and the Student Sustainability Council.
Spend at least 120 minutes outside in nature each week – disconnect, relax, and let the stress slip away! Tell us about it below.