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Precedent Studies

 

Here I will be discussing and analysing precedent studies that I found of intrest and relevant to my research of healing architecture environment for scoliosis rehabilitation.

Casts and Plaster

 I have decided to look into casts and how they are made for a few reasons. Firstly it is the process of how the back brace mould is made and specifically suited for the person's specific spine curve. Further in the research process a question arose how can the cast be used in creating art, specifically aided design or a detail of architecture?

 

Frida Kahlo life was changed after her accident when she was put into a full body cast for three months. To occupy her time she decided to start painting, which later made her turning down her medicine studies. She decorated her cast with paintings that inspired a lot of people including me. While once asked why she was painting herself, she said: "I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best.” (Frida Kahlo Foundation, 2014)

 

Looking into visual examples below it is clear that there are a lot of uses for plaster and casting. Some of the cast concept models really inspire me to look into this project from a different design angle and explore different spatial combinations and floor levels.

 

Further there are examples of larger cast proportions like creating direct light shades, book shelves and stairs that lead to nowhere, but at the same time could represent to a specific psychological place of confidence and assurance that scoliosis patients are so lacking in.

Playfull and Warm Environments

When designing a space for teenagers, it is important to make it interesting and exciting for them visually. These images above give a clear idea of what I feel is a comfortable, playful and exciting environment for children to recover in. There are some private and gathering spaces examples that would suit my project. I love the materiality of the wood and soft furnishings.

Figure 17

Figure 19

Harry Thelar Mobile Furniture
 

Italian designer Harry Thaler designed these great mobile and flexible beds, which would be great for use in hospitals and rehabilitation centres. This piece of furniture has built in lights and shelves, the carcase of the furniture creates its own space and privacy. (Davis, 2014)

Figure 18

Didier Fiuza Faustino - Solo House
 

This impressive concept of the house really inspires me to create a space for rehabilitation purposes by thinking outside the box. I love the way light plays such important part in this building and how it reflects on water. (Castro, 2014)

Figure 20

Water Features
Thurther in the research process for a rehabilitation centre I feel it is important to look into water features as it is a major healing environment aspect. These are just some exaples I found of intrerest.
Liquidrom in Tempodrom, Berlin, Germany

Figure 21

 "The Liquidrom is the third event hall of the Tempodrom with a water basin 13 meters in diameter, vaulted with a domed concrete shell incorporating a top light in its zenith. Light and sound define the atmosphere of the Liquidrom. Up to 50 visitors lying in lukewarm salt water can enjoy an impressive concert experience with light installations, underwater loudspeakers and four sound columns. Besides the circular saltwater basin the Liquidrom also consists of several saunas, steam baths and a hot water open-air basin." (gmp, 2003)

 

Underwater music therapy I think is a perfect way to relax and float around in a beautifully surrounded space. This is the aspect of therapy that I would want to incorporate in my rehabilitation centre, as from personal experience having tried it I found it to be a great way to relax and forget the troubles during that peaceful moment.

Steven Holl Architects
Daeyang Gallery and House, Korea
 
Another beautiful water feature incorporated into the building design is by Steven Holl Architects.
 
"After passing through a bamboo formed garden wall at the entry court, ascending steps into the entry pavilion bring the viewer at elbow height with the unifying sheet of water. Here, at the center of this place is an inner feeling with the sky, water, vegetation and the reddened patina of the copper walls all reflected in different ways." ( Steven Holl Architects, 2012)
24 hours at Ørestad College

Figure 22

3XN Architects have designed Ørestad College in Denmark to be the first educational facility to fulfil needs of new educational visions. Openness and flexibility are key factors of the design and in terms of teaching method. Students at Ørestad College are encouraged to ‘take responsibility for own learning’, this then would help them to work individually and in groups.

M. Fairs explains the layout of the building: “The college is interconnected vertically and horizontally. Four boomerang shaped floor plans are rotated to create the powerful super structure which forms the overall frame of the building – simple and highly flexible. Four study zones occupy one floor plan each. Avoiding level changes makes the organisational flexibility as high as possible, and enables the different teaching and learning spaces to overlap and interact with no distinct borders. The rotation opens a part of each floor to the vertical tall central atrium and forms a zone that provides community and expresses the college’s ambition for interdisciplinary education.” (Fairs, 2007)

Pictou Landing Health Center Building, Canada

 

The Pictou Landing Health Centre building is situated in the middle of the Mi’kmaq First Nation fishing community in coastal Nova Scotia, Canada.

Inside the building, there are clinics and consultation rooms, as well as a community meeting space. The building’s structure utilises local small-diameter spruce trees that were shaped into correct positions by the community. The materials were chosen to reflect on a historic indigenous tradition of long house and lodge layout. The local decommissioned municipal well water system serves as a source of geothermal energy for heating and cooling the building. This, combined with high levels of insulation, heat recovery ventilation, earth berm and mass heat storage, allows the building to have a 43% higher energy efficiency than a conventional building of similar size. (Welch, 2008)

Ravelo Medical Clinic, Tenerife, Spain, GPY Arquitectos

 

The building is characterised by a dialogue between the external, concrete ‘frame’, open along the north-south axis, which lends the building its urban feel, and a continuous internal wooden skin which transforms the ‘framed’ empty space into a series of rooms, separating the areas for specific, private use from the public ones such as the reception area, waiting room, corridors and stairway.

A system of folding shutters along the southern facade regulates the entry of sunlight – a feature which lends the building its bioclimatic character while at the same time offering optimal lighting conditions for the workspaces. (World Buildings Directory, 2008)

Building Reuse
 

“The successful marriage of old and new, of past and future is dependent upon a thorough knowledge or anticipation of what is expected.” (Brooker, 2004, p.67) 

The images provided above show a clear junction between old and new and blends them together, which is the most important aspect in building renovation. Brooker in her book "Rereadings" states: “When the building is reused the most important and meaningful factor in the design is the relationship between the old and the new.” (Brooker, 2004, p.79) These examples use glass to incorporate the new and display the main featuures of the old.

“The insertion of a new functioning element not only provides a use for an often redundant or neglected space, but also serves to enhance and intensify the building itself.” (Brooker, 2004, p.102)

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