TRANSFORMATIONS OF OLD HOSPITAL AREAS – VALORIZATION OF HEALING GARDEN VALUES

References: 17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2017, www.sgemviennagreen.org, SGEM2017 Vienna GREEN Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7408-29-4 / ISSN 1314-2704, 27 - 29 November, 2017, Vol. 17, Issue 63, 1079-1086 pp; DOI: 10.5593/sgem2017H/63/S27.134

ABSTRACT

Old hospitals today usually don`t meet current health care requirements, requirements of new generations of medical facilities and technologies. For all these reasons the old hospitals and their areas often undergo urban transformation processes – change of use, revitalization or restoration. However, old hospitals and their areas often possess high architectural, landscape architectural and cultural heritage values, which should be preserved. Green areas of hospital healing gardens and old hospital parks with mature woody plants often represent high-quality green spaces and important components of urban green infrastructure. We use the example of an old hospital – Stummer`s hospital in Topoľčany to examine its architectural, landscape architectural and cultural heritage values and to explore those possibilities of its new use, which respect preservation of these values. We focus specifically on the analysis of the values of the hospital park and the possibilities of its transformation valorizing healing garden qualities.

Keywords: cultural heritage, green infrastructure, healing gardens, hospital gardens, urban transformation