This master’s thesis addresses the area of the Psychiatric Clinic Ljubljana Polje. It deals with insight into the space for the treatment of patients with mental disorders. Many people spend most of the day in a built environment; however, so many discoveries, thoughts, and awareness are directly intertwined with space and surroundings. The way that we, as humans, perceive ourselves and the world around us, how we think, deduct, decide and solve problems, shape each moment of our lives and influence our wellbeing.
Each discipline approaches the study of the human mind in health from its own viewpoint, methods, thought processes and research techniques. With empirical methods and paradigms, we can observe the state of psychiatric hospitals, understand their shortcomings and make appropriate rectifications. For many patients, hospitals become their home for weeks or months. Natural light, scale, textures, colours, materials and landscape are tools with which the space can establish a dialogue with the human body and mind.
Architecture should not only respond to the physical needs of its users, but also to their mental and emotional needs. Therefore, great care should be taken to closely monitor patients with mental disorders in the treatment process and their healing environment. It can be said that healing requires the coexistence of the healing process and experiencing space of therapeutic environment. The thesis focuses on factors that can provide experiential quality in spaces and seeks to answer the question: Can spaces heal?
Render: Rok Staudacher
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Project Data
Master thesis: Architecture of mind: Conceptual design of the University Psychiatric clinic Ljubljana – Polje, UL FA, EMŠ Architecture, Ljubljana, 2018
Student: Rok Staudacher
Menthor: assoc. prof. Tomaž Krušec