Hello my lovely friends, its been a hot minute since I last wrote a blog post on Gutsy Feeling. Over the past 4 months I have been active over on Instagram and Facebook, but took a bit of a break from my content on the blog. Today I want to share why and explain to you what’s happening next.
This past year I was completing my Master’s of Architecture and this was definitely a huge course load. Once, Christmas 2019 hit I was exhausted, had zero motivation to write or go beyond my school load. I was burnt out and needed time to recover. At the time I also started to develop severe anxiety and I was in a mild Crohn’s flare. My life was a little all over the place.
So, I decided that for the sake of my mental and physical health I needed to take a step back from the blog. I knew that everyone would understand that this was the right decision. So, over the past 4 months I took a break from writing, but throughout that time I was able to finish my entire thesis and publish my thesis book. So, I wanted to share a bit of my findings today with you on the blog, as well as a special announcement at the end.
MY THESIS PROJECT: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN HOSPITAL & HOME
To best explain my thesis I thought I would share with you my thesis statement below:
All architectural spaces have the ability to support or hinder each person along their life journey. For patients, this idea becomes even more relevant. How are the spaces surrounding them, helping to aid in their healing journey?
Healing is an ongoing journey towards a healthy state of living that is achieved with physical body healing, spiritual, cultural, and emotional healing practices. Often, measured by reaching certain stages in prognosis or milestones in recovery. Healing is a very complex and highly subjective practice. Many studies have discussed the link between the environment and mental and physical healing. Therefore, emphasizing the importance of healing design research and improving the quality of space design for people’s healing.
Since the mid to late 1900s, there has been ample research surrounding the improvement of hospitals and healthcare facilities to promote more significant healing for patients. Research has been conducted on various interrelated topics surrounding healing. Some of these include the negative impact of stress on healing, the benefits of nature on recovery, and the connection to the five senses during the healing process.
The research surrounding healing and health care facilities is vast and dense. However, what happens to patients once they leave the hospital? How do they transition back to normalcy and return home from the hospital in a relaxed manner? This transition is typically not easy and, therefore, is the area of focus and investigation for this thesis project. The motivation for this thesis project is to bridge the gap between hospital and home to ease the recovery process for people with physical conditions. This void is filled with a transitional facility designed to ease the healing journey and support people as they transition back to a sense of normalcy/remission before returning home. Gathered healthcare research from scholars, as well as investigations throughout this thesis project, have created the basis for healing design principles. These principles aid in the design of the new facility typology created to strengthen the current healthcare process.
In conclusion, this thesis project proposes solutions to filling the void in the healthcare industry between hospital and home. In the end, this thesis compiled a substantial list of healing design principles that can be applied to any environment. In addition, a transitional facility typology is proposed as a possible solution to the current void in the healthcare industry. By doing so, this project offers a new perspective on how architectural spaces can support the healing journey to promote ease and remission.
In the end, I was able to compile a list of healing design principles and apply them to a design for a transitional healing center in Detroit, MI. Below are a few photos of the work that I completed.
If you want to find out more about my thesis research, read my book here, or watch the video of me defending my thesis below.
WHAT’S NEXT?
So now that I am officially done school I have some big plans for Gutsy Feeling and my new shop Stitching Sunshine. I will also be starting my full time job in architecture in the next month or so (based on what happens with Covid-19).
So, what are these big plans? Well starting next week, I will be releasing the blog content in TWO formats. I am really excited to broaden my audience and to allow you to choose how you want to consume the content. I will be releasing more info about this in the next week! (hint: you may need headphones for the new content!) I hope you are as excited as I am. My content will be sticking in the realm of IBD/Chronic Illness, Lifestyle, and Wellness.
I will also continue to grow Stitching Sunshine, a new eco-shop that my mom and I launched at the end of April. We are very excited to share with you all handmade sewn solutions. Each design is made with love and to serve a purpose for both you and the planet. Check it out and see if you like anything!
QUESTION: HOW IS 2020 GOING FOR YOU?
I hope that this post helped bring you up to speed on what has been going on in my life, and also got you excited about what is COMING SOON.
If you liked the post make sure to share it with a friend and subscribe to my blog to get email updates every time I post. Also be sure to follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest to get more updates from me on my day to day life.
Your trusty, gutsy gal,
Nathalie xx
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