Florapark Depression Recovery Center
This project explores as a research, alternative forms of therapies within psychiatric institutions in our present societies. The research is extended to a design that merges different topics and a variated program in a way to create healthy environments - courtyards, landscape, winter garden, therapy spaces- The different atmospheres are explored and revealed through the mix process of model making and photography.
The Florapark Depression Recovery Center located in Amsterdam Noord is a non-hospitalized health care institution project for young patients. The research carried out for the design focuses on the interest and relevance to use body mind therapies both as a form of prevention from low depression episodes and as a part of the treatment for all range of depression cases.
The single storey complex is a horizontal composition divided in two main parts. A private wing, linked to an existent kinder-garden building where treatment, sleeping rooms and common spaces for patients are held. A public wing appears as a counterbalance towards the north side of the project, extending in an empty esplanade of the park. It is composed of a shared structure of a linear greenhouse attached to the swimming pool and hot bath spaces.
The new building is mainly composed of pitched roof structures. This composition evolves together with the materiality of the project to recreate the barn typology, growing in scale from the private wing to the public one. The whole project is a timber construction with a main system for each part. A Cross Laminated Timber construction for the smaller scale private wing and a Timber Skeleton Construction for the larger public wing.
The design focuses on key elements for the development of the project, namely the interior gardens, the patient rooms and the joint structure of greenhouse and hydrotherapy rooms. The multiplicity of features offered in the Depression Recovery Center, projected within the context and the landscape aims for a detachment of the individuals from routine, providing comfortable atmospheres that have a positive influence on the patients thus playing an important role in their recovery.
TU Delft Msc3-4 Interiors- The Healthy Environment
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Project type: Healthcare - Master Thesis
Area: 5000m2