Maddie Burton: Treatment Centre for Patients with Schizophrenia.
This treatment centre for people with schizophrenia was inspired by the lack of domesticity and comfort within mental health institutions. The design focuses on the iconography of a house and the psychology of a home to make people feel instantly safe and at ease. Although the centre is designed to help treat the condition it is also meant to trigger hallucinations and delusions in certain safe areas to help the neurodiverse learn to live with schizophrenia, as this condition can be treated, however, it cannot be cured.
The project developed through a research phase in which I tried to understand the users experiences and needs. It then started focusing on the feeling of home and what creates the feeling of safety within the home. Eventually, the final design outcome is a space which focuses on people with schizophrenia’s well being concentrating on making them feel connected rather than isolated. The green spaces within calm the mind, whilst the clear boundaries between private and communal space make it easy for people to focus and feel safe within a social situation swell as an intimate one.
The project was greatly inspired by the Maggie Centre in West London which was designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and RD Laings Kingsley Hall, in which he lived amongst people with schizophrenia and encouraged their hallucinations and delusions.
Madlen Burton.