21 November 2005
Zoological?
‘What would a building space look and feel like if it were designed to promote psychological and social well-being? How would it affect the senses, the emotions, and the mind? How would it affect behavioral patterns and sense of community?
For insights, it is useful to look not at buildings, but at zoos. Zoo design has gone through a radical transformation in the past several decades. Cages have been replaced by natural habitats and geographic clustering of animals. In some places, the animals are free–ranging and the visitors are enclosed in buses or trains moving through the habitat. Animals now exist in mixed species exhibits more like their natural landscapes. And, as in nature, the animals have much greater control over their behavior. They can be on view if they want, or out of sight. They forage, play, rest, mate, and act like normal animals.
What brought about this transformation in philosophy and design? A key factor was concern over the animals’ psychological and social well-being. Zoos could keep animals alive, but they couldn't make them flourish. Caged animals often exhibit neurotic behaviors – pacing, repetitive motions, aggression, and withdrawal. In one famous example, an animal psychologist was hired by the Central Park Zoo to study a polar bear that spent the day swimming in endless figure 8s in its small pool. This was not normal polar bear behavior and the zoo was concerned about it. After several days of observation, the animal psychologist offered a diagnosis. The bear was bored.’
Extract from
Psychosocial Value of Space by Judith Heerwagen
Growing cultures - antibiotic art?
‘The interior appears to have grown organically over time by a process of accretion similar to the formation of mould. At some point, a complex wooden network began to grow up the walls of the entrance area. Growing across the ceilings, it covered the windows and the strange ceiling murals with transparent webs of carved wooden tracery. Human faces, painted on the ceiling, peer down through the maze of wooden forms.’
Extracts and photographs from
The Architecture of Madness – Raw Vision No41.John MacGregor examines the Junker House in Lemgo Germany.
‘It’s creator Karl Junker (1850-1912), was a highly trained architect, whose entire career and only building was this house.’
In his 1928 publication ‘Das Junkerhaus zu Lemgo’
Dr Gerhard Kreyenberg details his diagnosis of Karl Junker’s schizophrenia and connections between that diagnosis and the style and content of the house.
Although more detailed externally the house is similar to local vernacular with one stark difference, it has about twice as much glass. Junker created an extravagant interior for a family, yet appears to slept and worked in tiny attic rooms. He carved into the building, furniture and sculpture to make a rich and complex web of nature and formal religious iconography.
How Junkers concrete expression of his internal reality (through the creation of his personal space) impacted on his health are unclear, as no writings by Junker have been found, although the reality his vision and the process of its realisation are undeniable.
Junker house website in German
The Discovery of the Art of the Insane book by John MacGregor
The Business of Care
‘I think good design affects different people in different ways. For patients it offers an optimistic and human setting at a time when they’re anxious and vulnerable. For staff it provides a dignified environment to perform their duties in a functional way and for management it provides an efficient setting for the business of care.’ Susan Francis – Architectural Adviser, NHS Estates / NHS Confederation
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11 November 2005
and the winner is...
The results of the
Dykebar Postcard Competition 2005.
'my favouite place'
