Thesis Research - Disorientation in Architecture

Posted on: September 15th, 2011

Disorientation is detrimental to psychological hardiness especially for those in vulnerable states such as mid or post-trauma. A state of being, affecting normal states of physical and mental awareness first in time, then place and finally person, disorientation is ironically found in spaces of physical healing, bucking the philosophy that mental health plays an important role in patient recovery and ignoring the critical oath by architects of holding health, safety and welfare sacred.

The causes of disorientation vary and may be due to environmental cue limits, trauma, spatial organization, delirium or intoxication. The specific use of disorientation in architecture is found in typologies ranging from labyrinths to torture chambers, intents ranging from amusement and experiential time extension to degradation of mental capacities to the point of permanent disabilities, shock, even death.

In the ICU unintentional disorientation typically leads to ICU psychosis, caused by sensory deprivation, sleep disturbance and deprivation, continuous light levels, chronic stress, loss of time and date and continuous interrupting noise levels, resulting in temporarily psychotic patients experiencing anxiety, restlessness, clouded consciousness, hallucinations, nightmares, paranoia, agitation, delusions, fluctuating consciousness and permanent mental degradation.

How can we as architects deliberately reform space to prevent long term cognitive dysfunctions resulting from exposure to spaces of disorientation based on design concepts of hyper functionality, hypermedia or hyper capitalism? How can our understanding of human cognitive mapping, targets and landmarks inform spaces of stability? How might an architectural expression influenced by the inherent human connection with nature facilitate healing?

In this exploration we seek to understand the nature and use of disorientation in architecture so that we may understand the impacts of instability on potentially compounding mental issues and reform design to not only respond to physical symptoms but also to treat the person in the environment with the symptoms, while considering issues of basic humanity within the context of an architect’s Hippocratic oath.