healing architecture thesis

THESIS: Healing through Architecture

Healing through Architecture

Thesis Abstract by Jennifer Beggs 

Numerous studies show evidence of the body’s ability to “self-heal” when put into positive healing environments. This healing is enabled by the ability of the body to ‘tap into our internal pharmacies’ by activating the body’s powerful neurochemicals such as endorphins [Esther Sternberg].

The terms curing and healing are often used interchangeably but have distinct definitions. The term curing refers to the relief of the symptoms of a disease or condition. The term healing refers to the alleviation of a person’s distress or anguish. In order to fully take advantage of the body’s healing potential, environments hold the ability to stimulate the senses and become active healers themselves. This helps minimize negative effects of stress on the body, guiding a positive physical and psychological response to environments in ways that maximize the effectiveness of crucial medical treatments and procedures. In order to take advantage of the body’s healing pharmacies, environments must prevent the body from weakening due to stress.

Stress is the body’s biggest obstacle in healing, and many contemporary hospitals inflict so much stress on patients that it actually slows down healing, counteracting the medications and treatments patients receive. One of the body’s most effective ways of healing is through the means of releasing endorphins which can reduce pain and swelling, lead to feelings of euphoria, modulate appetite, and enhance the immune system’s response. Endorphins are natural, not addictive (unlike many drugs) and often have the same effect as traditional drugs such as morphine and codeine.

This thesis explores the relationship between environments and the chemical reactions in the body that enable healing. The research reviews several healing spaces, comparing traditional healing spaces with contemporary ones, and analyzing both positive and negative examples in terms of the architecture’s ability to help augment healing. The research reviews the focus patient in cancer treatment, investigating their specific challenges and then finally introduces the site, Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario, in which the design development is situated. The proposed design interventions focus on how architecture can have a positive impact on patients receiving chemotherapy. In order to realistically move towards fully realized wellness, hospitals need to take a holistic approach to treat a patient’s physical illnesses, psychological health, emotional hardships, and physiological response. “Ultimately it is the senses that need to be revitalized as it is an integral part of healing” [“Grandnm”].

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Leave your reply.

I am very interested in this research. where can i read the full thesis on this ?

I’m doing my thesis on healing center and would like more information from you regarding your study. Thanks.

You can download Jennifer Beggs’ full thesis here: uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/9591 Another Waterloo student very recently defended a thesis on long term care & rehabilitation hospitals that may be of use to you too: uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/14398

can u suggest some casestudies on this topic??

i am doing my thesis on schizophrenia is there any information on mental care centres or schizophrenia centres?

Would you mind if I use some of the lines in my podcast

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LUP Student Papers

Lund university libraries, healing architecture: exploration of mental well-being in an urban context.

• Jesper Magnusson
• Department of Architecture and Built Environment
• Arts and Architecture

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Healing Through Architecture: A Human-Centered Design Focused on Biophilia and the Connection to Nature

Author/Creator

More information, collections.

10 Examples of Healing Architecture around the world

Healing Architecture is a scientifically developed concept to nurture the physical and mental wellbeing of people. Prevalent in healthcare facilities and rehabilitation centres, this form of building, targets humans at the core of the issue. The spaces are designed to create environments to facilitate happiness and tranquillity. This function-driven design typology combines architecture , psychology and human anatomy , to induce the human ability to self-heal. 

Below is the list of 10 examples of healing architecture:

1. Drug De-addiction Centre for Muktangan Mitra:

Designed by renowned Architect Shirish Beri, the health care facility is located in Pune. Built in 1986, the structure conforms to the contoured landscape. The building aims to rehabilitate drug addicts into society. The enclosed amphitheatre can accommodate up to 150 people while providing much-needed light and ventilation indoors. It visually connects the various internal spaces with nature, with the help of lush, grassy steps and ivy-covered stone walls. The structure combines transparency and solidarity by the intermixing of glass windows and stone retaining walls. The common spaces are naturally lit by circular skylights. Stepped balconies run along the perimeter of the structure, providing scenic views of the Western Ghats. The vistas, common spaces and the mix of materials facilitate the experience and process of patients undergoing rehabilitation. 

2. Saroj Gupta Cancer Centre and Research Institute:

Located in Thakurpukur, Kolkata, the teaching hospital is the only cancer hospital in India with such an expansive campus. Designed by Anjan Gupta Architects, the 13-acre site is extensively landscaped to incorporate the structures within nature. Opened in 1973, the hospital has 311 beds and over 850 staff members. The campus has three water bodies which provide passive cooling and a sense of tranquillity for patients. The building typology varies with functional requirements and external factors, thereby ensuring a more cost-effective design. The structures range from two to four-storey tall thereby reducing exposure to harsh sunlight. The colourful exteriors along with the lush green surroundings stimulate the mind and foster positivity. 

1.Master_Plan

2.Child_Care_Centre_Front_view_

3.Child_Care_Centre_Rear_view

3. Ilima Conservation School:

Located in the Tshuapa Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the campus aims to protect humans and wildlife in and around the village of Ilima. The 800 square metre building designed by MASS Design Group, was completed in 2015. The school comprises a reception area, library, an office and six classrooms. A pitched roof sits atop the two-metre-high walls to ensure ventilation in the highly hot and humid microclimate. The project ensured local employment and education toward construction technologies. The large volumes also aid in the cooling and circulation . Due to its remote location, the school is made entirely of local materials, with the help of the villagers. The walls are made up of mud combined with palm oil, while the roof is made of wooden shingles. The entire school emitted 307,000 kilograms of carbon less than that of a similar project elsewhere. The entire construction strategy, its process and the end product helped the community and the surrounding fauna heal and get a new beginning.

4. Butaro district hospital, Rwanda:

The 6000 square metre facility in the Burera District of Rwanda was completed in 2011. MASS Design Group worked in collaboration with ICON to idealise the 150-bed hospital. The hospital reverses the conventional central corridor layout. The corridors run along the perimeter of the building with the beds in the wards facing the windows rather than inwards. This reduces the risk of hospital-borne infections and cross-contamination . The views provide the patients with a feeling of peace and tranquillity. Constructed using local labour and local materials, the project boosted employment and the local economy. The excavation and walls were done by hand, thereby decreasing the transportation cost of the project.

• aerial site view
• entire project
• connecting passages
• hospital wards

5. Bridgepoint Active Healthcare, Canada:

Built in 2013, Bridgepoint Active Healthcare is situated in Toronto, Canada. The 63,000 square metre facility focuses on complex chronic disease treatment and rehabilitation. It was designed by HDR, KPMB Architects, and Diamond Schmitt Architects. The adjoining Don Jail was refurbished to house the hospital’s administration and education centre. The 140-year-old jail is connected to the newly built treatment centre by a bridge. The ground floor of the hospital wing is made of glass, thereby promoting transparency and entry of natural light. The façade is a mix of different types of windows and has cuboidal projections of multiple sizes. The horizontal ribbon windows on each floor are broken intermittently by vertical pop-out windows in the otherwise linear façade. The lower ground floor has a sunken therapeutic pool, which looks out onto the surrounding park. This enhances connectivity with nature and people in the outside world. The roof has a picnic area overlooking the city, for patients to reconnect with the environment and the busy city. The project won the 2015 AIA National Award and has a LEED Silver certification for sustainability.

1.exterior_south-east

• Don_Jail_rotunda
• patient_room
• terrace_roof
• therapy_pool1_

6. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice:

The National Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama spans across 2800 square metres. Conceptualized by MASS Design Group and activist and lawyer Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative it was built in 2018. It was built in remembrance of the lives lost to lynching, between Reconstruction and the 2nd World War. There are names of over 4000 people, from the twelve Southern States alone. The project aims to accept history and to help people move on from the dark past. The structure makes us introspect on the much-needed change in the mindset of the population of the USA. As one enters the monument, the floor seems to drop down, forcing visitors to look up at the suspended plaques. The entire site consists of 800 COR-TEN steel columns hanging from the roof, with each dedicated to a particular county or district. 

7. Mount Sinai Hess Centre for Science and Medicine:

The Mount Sinai Hess Centre was built in 2013 by world-renowned architectural firm, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM). The 40,000 square metre facility in Upper Manhattan, blends nature and state of the art technology to create a healing environment. Each floor has informal as well as formal meeting spaces for scientific discussions and relaxation. Visitors’ access is restricted to the bottom four levels. A four-storey high atrium is landscaped to provide much-needed relief to an otherwise solid mass amidst the city. Comprising 11 levels, the research centre is connected vertically by a central stairwell. Horizontally the various visitor spaces are connected visually. 

8. Gallaudet University:

The Gallaudet University expansion was built in 2008, in Georgetown, Northeast DC. It was designed by the university architect, Hansel Bauman. Being the only liberal arts institution for the deaf and hard of hearing, the Sorenson Language and Communication Centre’s meaning of healing is different than in hospitals. The healing aspect is seen in the improved quality of education and living. Various design elements have been modified to accommodate communication via sign language. The doorways and corridors are wider while diffused natural light enhances visibility. Horseshoe-shaped seating is provided in common areas so that discussions occur without hindrance. This kind of architecture has been termed as DeafSpace by the architect and the university. The acoustics are designed to minimise white noise and echoes. The walls are painted in contrast to skin tones to ensure students’ and teachers’ hand movements are clear. 

9. Jiyan Healing Garden:

Jiyan Healing Garden is an animal-assisted trauma therapy centre situated in Chamchamal, Kurdistan-Iraq. The 660 square metre facility was built by ZRS Architekten Ingenieure in 2016. The centre aims to aid citizens suffering from trauma caused by the continuing strife in the nation. It reinvents traditional local architecture using local materials, construction technologies, flora and fauna. A set of eleven earthen structures are arranged around a courtyard. The rooms are passively cooled with the help of thick air-dried earth brick walls and straw insulated timber roofs. The roofs extend to form porches and continue to shade the pathways connecting the varying volumes. The site is landscaped in a grid pattern to give a semblance of uniformity and symmetry. 

10. Santa Fe de Bogotá Foundation:

Situated in Bogota, Columbia, the hospital expansion was built in 2016. Designed by El Equipo de Mazzanti, the building has a floor area of 32,000 square metres. The building connects with the city with the presence of a landscaped plaza. The large cube merges with the rest of the medical complex, with help of the brick façade. However, the brick is used as a perforated membrane with an externally concave screen. There is a solarium on the ninth floor of the twelve storeys tall building. The solarium brings the soothing effect of nature into the common spaces. Lighting conditions, natural ventilation and greenery reduce the recovery time by reducing the stress and fatigue of the patients.

A 4th-year student of architecture, Krittika is foraying into the professional world of design. Buildings- their past, present and the endless possibilities of the future excite and inspire her. Her means of expression is through writing and art. She unwinds by listening to music and is an avid reader.

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Healing through architecture: role of architecture in promoting healing in cancer care settings

Vrindha Vijay , Rhode Island School of Design Follow

Date of Award

Spring 6-1-2021

Document Type

Degree name.

Master of Architecture (MArch)

Architecture

First Advisor

Second advisor.

Jonathan Knowles

Architecture creates the ambience and frame of mind for the carer, who then passes it on to the patients. It is the physical space that provides us to feel a certain way or experience a set peacefulness. Humans tend to react to spaces around them to connect emotionally and physically. And in that sense, Architecture is key. The focus, thus far, in most healthcare centers have been on clinical care rather than the soft services. Today, Architecture is striving to make a better environment that can contribute to patients’ healing, recovery, and well-being.

The goal of this thesis is to facilitate the processes of caring and healing through the redesign of a cancer care center. The project will establish relationships between experience, empathy and architectural environment. The design should aim to reduce patient and family stress. To achieve this goal, architecture must eliminate environmental stress, poor lighting, and the lack of private spaces to allow the patients to take complete advantage of the space they are in.

When one finds themselves in a situation that conquers their abilities to fight their inner stress, they begin to rely on external factors. It is the physical space they are in that allows them to connect their emotions. The fact that hospitals ignore the importance of design in providing emotional and stress-free care for their patients is something one needs to reflect upon. This thesis explores the relationship between healing and architecture and focuses on cancer patients and their caretakers/caregivers in particular.

How can the physical space of a care center be used to enable emotional, physical and psychic well-being for patients and caregivers?

View exhibition online: Vrindha Vijay, HEALING through ARCHITECTURE

Recommended Citation

Vijay, Vrindha, "Healing through architecture: role of architecture in promoting healing in cancer care settings" (2021). Masters Theses . 669. https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/669

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Home > Colleges, Schools, and Departments > School of Architecture > School of Architecture Dissertations and Theses > Senior Theses > 62

Architecture Senior Theses

Architectural Healing Environments

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Brian Schaller

Document Type

Thesis, Senior

Spring 2012

healthcare, healing environment, phenomenology, evidence-based design, Manhattan

• Disciplines

Architecture

Description/Abstract

"It is the contention of this thesis that a study of the phenomenological approach to how one experiences space and by incorporating evidence-based design criteria that are acknowledged for improving wellbeing, quality of life, and reducing distress in people, a healing environment will emerge. The experienced environment will facilitate a temporal awareness of one's self and the design criteria's attention to the experienced setting will allow for a healing environment to emerge within the architecture. I am not proposing that architecture can heal, but rather the architecture can stimulate a healing environment."

Additional Information

Advisors: Randall Korman / Anne Munley

Recommended Citation

Schaller, Brian, "Architectural Healing Environments" (2012). Architecture Senior Theses . 62. https://surface.syr.edu/architecture_theses/62

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So kann Architektur zur Heilung beitragen

 „Healing Architecture“ geht alle etwas an: Patienten und Angehörige, das Personal vor Ort, die Gesellschaft im Ganzen. Wie kann Architektur als zweiter Körper die Heilung des ersten fördern?

Ob toxische Beziehungen, Long Covid, Autoimmunerkrankungen oder (generationsübergreifende) Traumata: Heilung ist allerorts ein begehrtes Gut. Eine nordische Band nennt sich sogar schon des Längeren so, ein deutschsprachiger Roman aus diesem Jahr ebenso, ein Sachbuch aus 2021 behauptet im Titel gar: „Healing Is the New High“. Und „Healing Architecture“? Die Anfänge dieser Disziplin liegen in den USA der 1980er-Jahre, als der Architekturprofessor Roger Ulrich in einer Studie feststellte, dass Patienten, die sich im Krankenhaus nach einer OP erholten und dabei Aussicht auf Bäume hatten, schneller gesund wurden als jene, die vom Bett aus auf eine Mauer blickten. Das deutsche Zukunftsinstitut hat die heilsame Architektur vor wenigen Jahren als Subtrend in den Megatrend Gesundheit eingegliedert und bezeichnet sie als Disziplin, die „Bauwerke, Räume, Licht, Akustik und Luftqualität so gestaltet, dass sie dem Wohlbefinden der Menschen dienen. (…) Zur Förderung von Heilungsprozessen werden Gebäude gewissermaßen zur Arznei.“

Architektur als zweiter Körper

Dass Architektur auch krank machen kann, hat das Sick-Building-Syndrom schon in den 1970er-Jahren gezeigt. Schlechte Luftqualität und versteckte Chemikalien in Innenräumen können demnach Symptome hervorrufen, die sich bessern, wenn man das Gebäude verlässt. „Man kann einen Menschen mit der Wohnung genauso erschlagen wie mit der Axt“, hat der Maler Heinrich Zille gesagt. Lärm, ein Mangel an Tageslicht und Privatsphäre, schlechte Luft und unfreundliche Materialien sind schon für den gesunden Menschen Zumutungen. Im Krankheitsfall werden sie unerträglich.

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