Therapeutic architecture and wellness resort design: a bibliometric mapping review (2000–2026)

Introduction Spaces shape how people feel, act, and think, yet little bibliometric evidence exists on whether therapeutic architecture research and wellness resort research draw on a shared knowledge base. This study presents a PRISMA-guided bibliometric mapping review comparing these two literatures to assess the extent to which they intersect. Methods Five objectives guided the study: (1) to track publication growth between 2000 and 2026; (2) to identify the leading journals and document types; (3) to map keyword co-occurrence and thematic clusters; (4) to identify the most-cited works and the theoretical foundations they represent; and (5) to assess how far seven author-derived therapeutic architecture principles (nature connection, natural lighting, natural ventilation, multi-sensory design, privacy, aesthetic harmony, and artwork/colour) appear as explicit keywords in the wellness resort literature. Two Scopus searches, using synonym-expanded TITLE-ABS-KEY queries and conducted in August 2026, retrieved 3,041 documents on therapeutic architecture and 2,004 on wellness resort environments; a documented relevance screen then yielded a final analysed corpus of 2,449 and 1,169 documents, respectively, with the existence and scale of both literatures corroborated by a parallel Web of Science search. Keyword maps used a common occurrence threshold of 17 (full counting). Results The therapeutic architecture corpus grew substantially, from 31 documents in 2000 to 281 in 2025, with leading journals including Buildings, the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, and the Journal of Environmental Psychology. Citation analysis showed the literature rests on restorative-environments research addressing stress recovery and attention restoration. Keyword co-occurrence mapping showed limited overlap between the two literatures: no wellness-resort-specific terms (e.g., spa, resort, hotel) appear in the therapeutic architecture network, and conversely, therapeutic architecture terms such as healing environment, restorative environment, and attention restoration either do not meet the occurrence threshold or, in the case of healing space, appear only as a small, weakly connected node within the wellness resort network. Discussion This bibliometric separation does not establish theoretical or disciplinary separation, and keyword absence does not show the principles are absent from the studies themselves. The findings indicate limited explicit keyword-level connection and offer a reproducible map to guide future research.