VIRGINIA T. BURT - principal of Visionscapes Landscape Architects Inc. specializes in therapeutic healing gardens, labyrinths and sacred spaces for both private residential clients and public health care clients. The approach that Virginia takes towards design of healing gardens and landscapes is a holistic one. Her work encompasses the whole: body, mind, emotion and spirit. Each project is a journey of wonder and discovery.

Understanding the client and their connection to the land is uncovered in Visionscapes work with storytelling. Learning and telling the story of the land and its community of people emphasizes our connectedness with Nature and natural evolution.

Attention to the physical “story” includes the natural attributes of the land. Its topography, geology, history, biology of flora and fauna and its physical character and how they are affected by (or have affected) human use and movement are all considered. Virginia’s work incorporates the natural attributes of the land with sustainability.

In relation to emotion, Visionscapes attends to the use of colour, contrasts of shadow and light, of textures, of scent and our relationship to space. Virginia bases her work on seven landscape archetypes in which we experience space and our relationship to space. These landscapes are related to seven vantage points in the landscape, the sea (immersion), the cave (nestling), the harbor (embracing), the promontory (extension), the island (separateness), the mountain (transformation), and the sky (transcendence) (Messervy, 1996). These landscape archetypes represent the circle of the life cycle from birth to death, leading from the sea (immersion) to the sky (transcendence) and then back again.

In relation to mental processes, we incorporate sacred geometry, use of form and memory, and the details of “how to get things done” in a timely and creative manner. Implementation is considered during the design with an awareness of possible costs. Visionscapes considers how a project could be implemented in several phases or in a single project.

In relation to Spirit, Visionscapes believes that we all have a connection to one source. Life is a journey that can awaken and invoke our inner knowing and wisdom of relationship to Spirit. Prayer, meditation, intention, ritual, acknowledging a core of place, labyrinths are spiritual elements that are considered during the design process of each project.

Virginia finds the magic of a place and its relationship to its inhabitants. Science has taught us that all of life is based upon relationships even when the individual elements have all been examined. At Visionscapes, we encourage relationship between the human spirit and the spirit of the land. When the mission and the values of the people are directly related to the land, the result is magical. Virginia Burt designs from her mission and values. It is Virginia’s belief that the spirit and healing of the land is directly related to the spirit and healing of humans. Our mission is to heal the earth....one garden at a time.