THE RESPITE - Center for Post Traumatic Street Disorder Patients

Abstract

Hospital facilities are meant to be the physical and mental health care centers and in our scenario, they do aim at accommodating the latest technologies in order to facilitate all the physical needs of the patients, but fail to properly address the psychological needs associated to them. The quality of spaces they provide, provoke an upsetting atmosphere and generate negative impacts on the mental and physical health of the people, rather than enhancing the healing processes. The project focuses on creating a healthcare and hospitality center for a specific user type i.e. patients facing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an alarmingly growing yet largely unrecognized mental disorder in our context, through sensitively designed healing environments. The intention is to exploit the therapeutic aspect of architecture by accentuating the emotive quality of spaces and focusing on the psychological impact they generate on the mind and the body through the way they are perceived. Creating spaces that are psychologically supportive is a crucial part of treating the overall wellness of the patients. Our physical surroundings can change the way we feel, affecting the course of illness or healing, by stimulating our senses and moods and as a result, eventually affecting the healing processes. Physical space that set the mind at ease can contribute to well-being and those that trouble the emotions might foster illness. (Sternberg) The respite centers on exploiting the natural elements such as light, wind, water, vegetation etc. with the design principles such as of color, texture, materiality and spatial organization to generate restorative ambiances within the built spaces that impact our minds and ease out the mental stress and anxiety of the patients while simultaneously focusing on their physical health, thus emphasizing on the entire well-being of the mind, body and soul. The respite provides treatment through psychotherapy, counseling programs, a physiotherapy gym, meditation rooms, healing gardens, a library, and some recreational social zones, lounging spaces etc. for patients to ease out, recover fully and be able to plug themselves back into their normal lives. Integrating such a center will not only lead to generate the awareness needed regarding the increasing PTSD disorder in Pakistan but will also serve as an example that demonstrates that the built spaces can influence the healing processes.