When the Montage Ohana Center for Health opens in Monterey, California, in early 2023, its outpatient, inpatient, and community care services will celebrate nature. As part of the local nonprofit Montage Health, a collective of preventive, restorative, palliative, and coordinated care facilities, Ohana Center for Health will specialize in the behavioral health of children and adolescents, drawing from its surroundings to encourage movement and foster a sense of agency that can help regulate emotions.

Guided by neuroscience research, the center, which will intentionally shun a cold, institutional aura for one that is inspirational and family-oriented is designed by the Los Angeles office of NBBJ in tandem with the locally based BFS Landscape Architects. Ohana, which means extended family in Hawaiian, focuses on early intervention and prevention of mental illness by encouraging patients, caregivers, and staff to revel in a seamless indoor-outdoor setting for nature walks, outdoor exercise, and quiet contemplation in refuge spaces.

Peppered throughout the 55,600-square-foot project will be a mix of private and more convivial-oriented cloisters, terraces, and patios that heighten the relationship with the environment. Group courses and music performances will take place in an alfresco amphitheater and vegetable gardens, also home to therapy sessions, will be planted with the likes of immunity-boosting lavender and rosemary. Water fittingly weaves through the site, too.

Even from inside, the bright, daylit spaces will be accentuated by views of the landscape captured in floor-to-ceiling windows.An abundance of cross-laminated timber, embedded with anxiety-lowering properties, will ensure a feeling of warmth across the interiors, like the calming, homey elements that will adorn the dining room ceiling.Flaunting a low-carbon footprint, these modular components can conveniently be assembled offsite to reduce cost and timelines, too.

A version of this article was originally published by Healthcare Design.