The Art of Caring: Carefully curated architectural spaces that encourage engagement with reflective thought and mindfulness to the benefit of one’s wellbeing

Abstract

This thesis first originated through my personal recognition of the immeasurable importance of engagement with reflective thought and mindfulness to one’s mental health, cognitive tolerance and general happiness with the everyday, something that our modern society’s notions of rush and judgement seem to hinder. As fabricators of the world we engage with, architects should ensure that care, respect, and above all else, empathy are involved with and applied to the buildings we design in order to provide occupant wellbeing. Might we design for psychological wellbeing through designing spaces that encourage engagement with mindfulness? Architecture has the potential to not only enact, but also inspire engagement with reflective thought through its spatial variation and emotive influence. However, this potential has not yet been culturally recognised enough in New Zealand to design for and therefore no spaces that encourage mindfulness currently exist in the public realm. As a response, this thesis demonstrates and advocates for architecture’s capacity to improve psychological and physical wellbeing through the design of two architectural interventions at Auckland City Hospital that encourage engagement with mindfulness. The two separate sites, which explore different forms of mindfulness, come together to demonstrate how it may benefit staff in a light-hearted, everyday manner, as well as provide a form of respite, therapy and emotional comfort for patients and their loved ones during times of extreme emotional pain. The decision to intervene within the hospital context propels the potential psychological benefit of this theoretical program into one that parallels and compliments the physical healing provided by the hospital. It also acknowledges the controversial issues surrounding public hospital design and provides an example of how we may beneficially improve upon this. Due to this emotionally significant context, this thesis and its design purposefully applies care and consideration to every design decision made. Above all, it is as an example of an architecture that advocates for the need to care not cure.