Since the beginning of mankind, it is likely that people have been seeking safe refuge in which to recover. When little to none  could be done to treat the  causes of illness or injury, a safe, supportive environment where natural or supernatural forces could aid the recuperative process to help the patient heal was of the utmost importance. Now we can design and adapt healing spaces and measure their healing properties. We must first understand the elements of an environment most likely to optimize physical, mental, and spiritual healing for the individual needs of patients from different backgrounds and cultures with different beliefs and attitudes about illness.

The positive effects of  environments are well known in the era before science. For many centuries in ancient Greece, temples to the God Asklepios, such as the one at Epidaurus, were designed to surround patients with no noise to promote healing in the absence of other treatments. In the nineteenth century, Florence Nightingale noticed the negative effects of hospitals with a lot of noise by observing differences in survival rates at various facilities. She attributed this difference to the hospitals’ design and construction.