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

Author

Vrindha Vijay, Rhode Island School of DesignFollow

Date of Award

Spring 6-1-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Architecture (MArch)

Department

Architecture

First Advisor

Anne Tate

Second Advisor

Jonathan Knowles

Abstract

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?

Comments

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

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.