Fiskerihavnen Kirkegård

from Health Design: Fiskerihavnen Kirkegård

Fiskerihavnen Kirkegård

In their 2020 edition of the “Constitution of the World Health Organisation”, WHO defines health along the 3 parameters of “physical mental and social well-being”. Described as the 4th dimension of health, spiritual health is characterised by its relationship to self, communities, nature and transcendence.

Utilising the spiritual healing attributed to religious spaces, the following proposal will aim to apply these attributes of self, community and transcendence in the form of a nature-based healing garden to accompany the new Tiny Church of Nordhavn, Copenhagen.

Spirituality is defined by the individual; and as someone’s culture, experiences and community changes so does their experience of spirituality (Dhar et. al, 2011). Someone’ spiritual health, or spiritual well-being, can be interpreted more concretely and is commonly understood under the 4 Domains of connection: [1] Connection to self [2] Connection to others [3] Connection to nature [4] Connection to the transcendent (Fisher, 2011). These four domains provide a holistic assessment on someone’s relationship with themselves and their relationship with the environment an d people around them. It also addresses the notion of the transcendent, a belief or faith in something beyond themselves and their environment.

Spiritual health has long been facilitated by Faith Based Organisations (FBO’s) and conventional religion, as a result WHO has distanced themselves from spiritualy due to the conservative ideologies attached (Winiger and Peng-Keller, 2021) . However, the state of global spiritual health is shifting. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recently redefined FBO’s as “any institution, organization, or congregation affiliated with a religious, faith-based, indigenous, or spiritual tradition.” (UNEP, 2022) This realisation of spiritual diversity can be the start of progressive change in religious spaces.

This change can be seen in the attitude of the church in Denmark today, with many church spaces accommodating music events, arts, crafts and yoga (Folkhuset Absalon, 2023). So as the future of church is moving in a direction of new communities and alternative uses, and it is important that the accompanying yard does the same. The aim of this paper will be to suggest a spiritually restorative landscape that responds to the needs of the modern churchyard, in this case the new Tiny Church development in the Fiskerihavn of Nordhavn.

Method

Evidence Based Health Design in Landscape Architecture (EBHDL)

The following report will adhere to 4 stages as outlined by the EBHDL model. Utilising evidence-based research this method will support and structure a final design intervention in the goal of realising the aim. These stages include (1) Evidence Collection, (2) Programming, (3) Design, (4) Evaluation.

Evidence collection will be achieved through analysing and interpreting several sources of evidence-based research and theories across the fields of health design and landscape architecture (HDLA). In the collection of evidence, the 4 keystones of HDLA will be advised by. These include (1) The Users, (2) The Environment, (3) Human Health, (4) Use of Nature.

Driven by the formation of a strong aim, programming will then assist in decoding the research and theories prior into a design language that can then be applied in the final proposal. This will involve the translation of evidence, into design criteria and potential design solutions.

The design process will then work with the application of these design criteria and solutions in the creation of a final intervention, providing a tangible representation of the findings of the evidence-based research and theories.

The evaluation of the final design is a process that can only take place after or if the proposal is eventually actualised. As a result this will not be included in this version of the report but may be visited at a later date. (Stigsdotter & Sidenius, 2020)

Fiskerihavnen Kirkegård

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