CONTEXT What does healing, health and wellness mean to you? Both in the United States and throughout the world, communities are broken, vulnerable demographics are often overlooked, elderly are being harmed, children are dying and the weak are being marginalized. These issues are so complex that many can’t even begin to define the problem, process or solutions. It becomes a question of thinking, leadership, collaboration, commitment and passion. The world is begging for answers, leaders and agents of transformation to emerge. We are in need of design systems, solutions and spaces that address the root causes of these problems while helping our communities move towards models
of holistic health and wellness. Developing research is evaluating methods in which the built environment impacts both community and patient healing experiences while contributing to measurable health outcomes. As a result, a sea of change is rolling through many systems as organizations are realigning and redefining themselves by integrating the paradigm shift toward evidence-based design to advance the condition of the human-being. The need to educate and prepare the next generation of leaders who will explore spatial relationships and humans needs is ever more crucial. Change agents
who think beyond traditional processes, rules of engagement and boundaries are in high demand. At the core, the purpose of this studio and our collective findings explore the relationship between the vulnerable demographic needs with evidencebased design. At the same time, our research considers a multitude of healing approaches and connections to design the built environment. This work includes considerations for how designers could affect quality of life and wellness while examining a broad range of healthcare and healing experiences from the human perspective.
TEAM JOY Our mission is to understand the impact of Joy and how it can be used as a tool to enhance experiences. Joy...the world needs more of it. It’s a wonderful, mysterious force that we believe is not utilized enough in modern culture. Our goal as a class was to expose this attitude of the heart through current topics in regards to human wellbeing and to reveal Joy’s physical, mental, and spiritual healing powers. We found that the solutions to the problems addressed in each
topic all narrowed down to or consisted of a simple concept called Joy. Our research suggests that we are born with a sense of Joy, however, for some it’s more difficult to uncover and embrace. Through the good and the bad, Joy is always within us and at the end of the day it is a state of being that we all hope to connect with.
Connections: The Full Circle 1 Healthcare Studio 28 Students 300 Pages 5 Research Topics: Joy Diversity Compassion Energy Medicine Refugee
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INT 465: Spring 2015 Interior Design Studio V
Students: Alexandra Curtis, Hannah Gutierrez, Alexandra Hoover, Nicole Pannuzzo, Kiana Taie-Tehrani Instructor: James Shraiky