Abstract:
Picture this: It's twenty years from now; you're standing in the city center. All you see
around you are concrete jungles just constantly working against the clock. As you start
walking through the city the buildings just keep getting taller, areas keep getting denser
and crowded. Compared to a decade ago, the issues around us keep getting worse. These
are the effects our lifestyle has on the environment as well as our mental health. As Kate
Jeffery says, “We’re creatures of the place we’re in”. This explains how architecture has
an effect on our minds, actions, lifestyle and wellbeing. With all the advancements in
societies and technologies, Media over-stimulation and consumption has people stressing
over everything and finding it difficult to cope up with the lifestyle so that is what brings
on a lot of stress and difficulties with having to keep up with all the social rules, mainly
for the young adults of this era. Architects, working with spaces are also closely related
to the link that is created between the space and its experience so the relationship of a
person and their experience in a space is closely related to how the design is put into
place. This is one of the reasons that architects are brought forward to be questioned
about the impact on the users from their designs and the atmosphere they create. Mental
health issues being a common result of these multitudes of stressors needs to be guided
and this project brings forth the questions of the link between design and mental health
also looks deep into how architects are able to have a huge impact on society and if
certain design elements or typologies can act as an aid through a set of design tools set in
place based on research. The limitations can vary from the requirements to the
monotonous behavior of daily lives and go as far as what helps patients recover without
acting as a form of trigger. In result to this research this project shows how a retreat
center can perform as a healing environment for the users through its design
