About the Project
Animation for Health and Well-being in Children Hospital Environments. A European project bringing nature-inspired murals and augmented reality animation into paediatric hospitals across Portugal, Croatia, and Bulgaria.
Most artwork found in hospitals consists of traditional murals, paintings, and sculptures — with little contemporary interactivity in children's waiting spaces. Healing Nature sets out to change that, using a combination of static image murals and hand-held screens for a sustainable, low-cost layering of hand-painted designs with animated digital elements, activated through augmented reality. Funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, the project invites children to explore, discover, and play with the space around them. Providing playful distractions to support the mental, physical, and spiritual well-being of patients, families, and hospital staff alike.
Spring Breeze — the Portuguese Mural
Brisa da Primavera
In Lisbon, the project is led by Universidade Lusófona (COFAC) in partnership with ULS São José — Hospital Dona Estefânia, Portugal's first hospital dedicated exclusively to paediatric care, founded in 1877.
The design and art direction were created by artist Natalie Woolf — lead researcher for the Lisbon team at CICANT — assisted by Ana Cortes. Spring Breeze draws on watercolour depictions of spring meadows and plant life, painted in layers built specifically to support animation and AR.
The animation was directed by Pedro Serrazina, assisted by Catarina Calvinho Gil who also was production manager, and animated by Ana Cortes, Daniela Tietzen, and Paulo Diogo Simão. The surveying and evaluation of the mural's impact is conducted by psychology partners Ana Beato, Ana Loureiro, and Isabel Santos from HEI-Lab.
Three murals – one from each of the partners - were installed at Hospital Dona Estefânia on 18 December, in the Multipurpose Paediatric Emergency Waiting Room B, the Immunology and Allergology Waiting Room B, and the Clinical Analysis Laboratory Waiting Room. There are also two further installations of the three murals at Zagreb Children's Hospital (the Croatian partners of Croatian Association of Fine Artists HDLU) and ISUL University Hospital "Queen Joanna" (the Bulgaria partners of New Bulgarian University).
A Project Across Three Countries
Healing Nature is coordinated by the Croatian Association of Fine Artists (HDLU), in partnership with Universidade Lusófona / COFAC (Portugal) and New Bulgarian University (Bulgaria). Each partner designed one mural, all three depicting natural, relaxing environments and installed across all three countries — Spring Breeze (Portugal), The Forest of Little Wonders (Croatia), and The Lilies and the White Pond (Bulgaria) — forming a unique international artistic ensemble.
The project also carries a strong research dimension: an eye-tracking study analysing how viewers engage with the murals, and questionnaires gathering feedback from patients, families, and hospital staff to establish the impact of still and animated imagery in the waiting room, aiming to understand how this kind of work might contribute to stress reduction — all feeding into a final digital booklet sharing the project's outcomes.
The Three Murals
Portugal
Partners
Croatian Association of Fine Artists (HDLU) — Zagreb, Croatia (Project Coordinator)
Universidade Lusófona / COFAC — Lisbon, Portugal, with ULS São José — Hospital Dona Estefânia
New Bulgarian University (NBU) — Sofia, Bulgaria, with University Hospital ISUL "Queen Joanna"
Project Website
Information
about the Project