03/09/2026
We’re pleased to share that ACA Director Alessandro Caruso has been invited to speak at the International Symposium on Nature-Based Interventions & Public Health 2026, hosted by the School of Architecture and Design at China.
Joining the symposium online from the UK, Alessandro will present:
“From Nature-Based Interventions to Healing Architecture: Translating Evidence into Design Practice.”
The presentation explores how evidence around nature, health and wellbeing can be translated into practical design decisions for healthcare environments, care homes and age-friendly communities.
At the centre of the discussion is Alessandro’s emerging concept of Relational Architecture – an approach that considers buildings not simply as physical objects, but as dynamic systems of relationships between people, nature, light, sound, material, movement, spatial organisation, culture and time.
Alessandro will also introduce ACA’s developing Relational Environmental Assessment (REA), which seeks to connect design intention with environmental evidence, human experience and post-occupancy learning.
This leads to an important question for the future of healthcare design:
Can architecture evolve from being evidence-informed to becoming evidence-generating?
If we continue to evaluate buildings once they are occupied, the environments we create can potentially generate new evidence about how people respond to nature, light, sound, movement, privacy and community – allowing each project to inform the next.
With ageing populations, increasing healthcare demand and growing interest internationally in hospitals, care environments and age-friendly communities, we’re delighted to be contributing to this timely discussion and exchanging ideas with colleagues in China and around the world.
📍 International Symposium on Nature-Based Interventions & Public Health 2026
📅 5–7 September 2026
Joining online from the UK | Harbin, China
