Secret Gardens of Freedom: A New Plan For Mason Clinic Campus

Abstract

“Secret Gardens of Freedom, A New Plan for Mason Clinic Campus” responds to the need for better forensic mental health care facilities in New Zealand. The Waitemata District Health Board Mason Clinic is a regional forensic mental health facility located in Pt Chevalier in Auckland, bordered on the west by the Oakley Reserve and the east by the Unitec campus. The site is approximately four hectares and currently accommodates 106 beds across a number of individual units with varying security levels and functionality. The long-term plan is to increase the capacity of the site by replacing the existing buildings with new units. The challenge in this research lies in successfully meeting the needs of good architecture and good mental health care and the question of how architecture could contribute to the treatment process of service users. This includes the consideration of new models of care world-wide and specific models of care in New Zealand. Currently, the majority of the population at Mason Clinic Campus belongs to the Maori community and therefore cultural aspects need to be taken into account for New Zealand’s specific model of care. This design research endeavours to reveal fresh ideas that bring architecture into play in regard to the environment and treatment of service users. Amongst various new therapy topics and ideas, this thesis specifically focuses on creating more humane indoor/outdoor spaces, healing gardens, and courtyards with which the service users can engage. This study will also focus on creating a carefully designed site landscape in order to engage the natural senses of users as one of the main areas of their therapy process. The interface of the whole campus with public and neighbouring areas is also taken into account for the influence it exerts upon the public mindset in relation to mental health. This thesis culminates in the design of units for a range of care levels and requirements in a semi-modular format. A community zone containing a series of buildings is considered to be the main interface of the public with service users. Since the master planning of Mason Clinic is already underway over the next two decades, this research is an attempt to look into aspects, which could otherwise be overlooked as a result of budget and time constraints during the actual design process.