The Architecture of Psychological Identity

Abstract

Can mushrooms and pre-human habitats solve the severe mental health crisis New Zealand faces? This thesis integrates therapeutic aspects from the primitive human habitats and the peculiar art forms of mushroom human to celebrate unique psychological identities and reduce discrimination towards them. Depression, which leads to disability and potential suicide, is a severe global issue. Most depressed adults have their first depressive episode at a young age1. Without a doubt, addressing youth depression at an early stage with appropriate treatments, would reduce the future burden on both an individual and society. However, the vast social stigma towards depression has been a great barrier, preventing a significant amount of mentally depressed youth from getting early treatment. The author finds architecture, as a media people experience on a daily basis, bears great potential to adjust society's perspective towards people who have unique psychological identities such as depression sufferers. Hence this thesis aims to adopt architecture as a medium to establish spaces that allow the experiencing or expressing of unique psychological identities in order to diminish social stigma towards those identities. This thesis defines psychological identity with two parts: psychological nurture and psychological challenge. The "Nurture" that is shared by both unique and common psychological identities. The "Challenge", on the unique psychological identities' stands, that is challenging to or challenged by the common psychological identities (the society). This thesis further tracks the archtype environmental qualities that represent the "Nurture" and employs art forms to generate clients who are representatives of the "Challenge". The designs of this thesis take inspiration from both outcomes and transfers them into architectural media drawings which would later resulted into architectural spaces. Additionally, the designs of this project are predominantly based on personal perspectives, emotions and intakes from "The Nurture" and "The Challenge" that shouldn't be considered as scientific proven optimal spaces for the depression patients. Finally, this thesis proposes to blur the barrier of stigma between depression sufferers and the common society. It's intended message is "It`s OK to have a unique psychological identity!" through the media of architecture in order to inform and provide early access to treatment for those in need.