Abstract
Loony Bins and madhouses; does the environment contribute to the wellbeing of mental health patients (clients)? Have the large Victorian asylums, where patients were hidden from public view, disappeared? Evidence suggests otherwise. People struggling with the distress and disruptive consequences of mental illness, are still kept in oppressive, unsympathetic environments. Research into patient focussed design and architecture has concentrated on physical health care environments and ignored psychiatric health care. As a result many psychiatric patients are still housed (and locked up) in former asylums with their outdated facilities and arrangements. The "Environ-mental" project and SEED is about design for wellbeing in addition to design for physical need and practical function.
Citation
Lamey, B., and Bristow, C. (2004) Environ-mental., in Redmond, J., Durling, D. and de Bono, A (eds.), Futureground - DRS International Conference 2004, 17-21 November, Melbourne, Australia. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2004/researchpapers/85
Environ-mental.
Loony Bins and madhouses; does the environment contribute to the wellbeing of mental health patients (clients)? Have the large Victorian asylums, where patients were hidden from public view, disappeared? Evidence suggests otherwise. People struggling with the distress and disruptive consequences of mental illness, are still kept in oppressive, unsympathetic environments. Research into patient focussed design and architecture has concentrated on physical health care environments and ignored psychiatric health care. As a result many psychiatric patients are still housed (and locked up) in former asylums with their outdated facilities and arrangements. The "Environ-mental" project and SEED is about design for wellbeing in addition to design for physical need and practical function.