[Psyche]
Date
2010-07-23T10:41:16Z
Authors
Bell, Andrew
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Abstract
The underlying assumption is that your immediate built and natural environment
has an effect on your psyche and your mental well-being. This paper is about
formulating a conceptual framework and a set of recommendations that could
inform the design process around creating spaces for well-being both mentally and
physically, ultimately pertaining to the planning of a contemporary psychiatric
facility. This will be done through a review of current literature on environmental
psychology, architecture and evidence-based design, together with an historical
review of space used and created for the treatment and housing of people with
mental illness both locally and internationally. Numerous interviews with
professionals in both architectural and psychiatric fields will reinforce the evidencebased
design approach of this thesis. A precedent study of architecture pertaining
to well-being and deinstitutionalisation will also contribute to the understanding
that architecture has an integral role to play in the creation of space that is
conducive to recovery from mental illness. It has been discovered that very few
concrete guidelines exist for producing spaces for mental well-being, yet there is a
vast body of research that proves that our environment has an affect on our
cognitions and ultimately our well-being, especially in hospital and psychiatric
settings. It is my hope that, through an evidence-based design approach, an
appropriate, holistic, and sustainable solution for the creation of space for wellbeing
in a psychiatric situation can be achieved