Arts and Architecture

Stuckeman School to host trauma responsive design workshop, lecture, discussion

Amy Wagenfield and Daniel Winterbottom are University of Washington faculty members that focus their work and practice on the healing qualities of nature. Credit: Provided. All Rights Reserved.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Stuckeman School in Penn State's College of Arts and Architecture will host Daniel Winterbottom and Amy Wagenfeld, University of Washington faculty that focus their work and practice on the healing qualities of nature, on Friday, Oct. 24. They will offer a hands-on sensory design workshop from 9 to 11:30 a.m. followed by a lunch and lecture session from noon to 1:30 p.m. that will explore how nature can serve as a healing tool for communities that have experienced trauma. 

Hosted by the Department of Landscape Architecture as part of its Bracken Lecture Series, the events are offered in partnership with the Stuckeman School’s Office of Access, Wellbeing and Equity. The workshop and lecture will be held at the Stuckeman Family Building Mezzanine (third floor). 

Titled “Trauma Responsive Design: A Sensory/Restorative Justice Responsive Approach to Healing from Community and Individual Trauma,” the discussions evolved from a landscape architecture community design studio this semester taught by Leann Andrews, assistant professor of landscape architecture; Sara Hadavi, assistant professor of landscape architecture; and Yuhan Zhou, graduate assistant, in which students are designing healing landscapes to support community members who have lost loved ones to gun violence in Braddock, Pennsylvania, a borough in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh.  

Winterbottom has dedicated his career to serving marginalized communities in Mexico, Guatemala, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Japan, China, Norway and Sweden, as well as domestically. His design-build projects address inequities and explore opportunities to solve complex challenges for those experiencing trauma, displacement, alienation and prejudice. He has numerous accolades to his name, including the Environmental Design Research Association’s (EDRA) Great Places Award in 2010 and 2019, several ASLA awards, and he was inducted as an ASLA Fellow in 2011. 

A professor of landscape architecture, Winterbottom authored “Design-Build, Integrating Craft, Service, and Research through applied Academic and Practice Models” (Routledge 2020). In 2021, he was the only American awardee to receive one of four Urban Sketchers Reportage Grants for 2021 for his project titled “The Shifting Landscapes of Despair, Hope, Survival and Persistence.” 

Wagenfeld is an occupational therapist, therapeutic design consultant, educator, researcher and author who serves as an affiliate associate professor at UW and principal of Amy Wagenfeld | Design. She is an American Occupational Therapy Association Fellow and holds specialty certification in environmental modifications through the American Occupational Therapy Association and certification in Healthcare Garden Design through the Chicago Botanical Garden.  

Wagenfeld was recently awarded the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Outstanding Service Award and the American Occupational Therapy Association Recognition of Achievement for her unique blending of occupational therapy and therapeutic design. She co-authored the award-winning “Therapeutic Gardens: Design for Healing Spaces” (Timber Press, 2015) with Winterbottom, with the second edition set to be published in February 2026 by Routledge. She also co-authored “Nature-Based Strategies for Allied Health Practitioners” (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2023) and “The Nature of Inclusive Play” (Routledge, 2023). 

According to event organizers, attendees will learn about the role of the eight sensory systems in daily life and their capacity to moderate the effects of trauma and explore a restorative justice approach to community healing. Using nature to moderate the impact of trauma will also be explored throughout the events.  

The events are free and open to the public with registration encouraged via Google forms. The lecture from noon to 1:30 p.m. will also be livestreamed via Zoom.  

Last Updated October 15, 2025

Contact