ABSTRACT
This chapter explores therapeutic use of place to promote health and well-being while focusing on deliberate use of geographic place, architectural space, and the dynamic interplay between both employed in an intentionally created community setting. It discusses the intersection of anthropology and human geography where, with sociology, psychology, architecture and public health, an integrated science of human health is forming. The chapter provides an overview of the historical context for construction of the Northern Michigan Asylum in the second half of the nineteenth century, as well as its present adaptive reuse as 'neo-traditional' community. It suggests how the therapeutic landscape may be connected to public health and policy debates on the subject of design, community planning, and regional development in the United States. The chapter attempts to reveal enduring resonances between major health and design reform movements of two arguably similar historical periods of great social and cultural change – the Industrial Revolution and our post-industrial restructuring.
