Healing Scars

This document examines the role of natural settings to facilitate the grieving process as seen through a case study of the National AIDS Memorial Grove (NAMG). The NAMG is referred to as a 'Living' Memorial, a term that can be best described as a memorial that predominantly relies on plant materials, in contrast to the profusion of inert materials typically used in conventional monuments and memorials. This project asks, is there a way to understand and evaluate the NAMG as a hybrid, comprised of design conventions associated with contemporary memorial designs and therapeutic gardens, which may lead towards a deeper understanding of a memorial's latent potential to provide a restorative or healing experience for the bereaved.