USC Architecture Xpo
Natural light shapes the interaction between human perception and the use of form. By contributing this element of fundamental significance when designing a space, light can be controlled through specific configurations of voids and shadows which begin to create a distinction from the space we are inhabiting and the one we are perceiving.
Although one in two people will develop a form of cancer in their lifetime, the experience of healing from cancer is an extremely personal one. For patient’s experiencing harsh treatments and the devastation that comes with a diagnosis, a bleak and harsh hospital environment can negatively affect a patient’s healing and recovery process. The current design process is not conducive to a patient’s healing and only further perpetrates medical traumas upon their psyche. Currently the design process inhabits the medical gaze in prioritizing efficiency and profit-driven goals of the clinic, rather than uplifting the sensorial effect the architectural design has on its users. In understanding the connection between religious spaces and medical spaces, it becomes clear how the sensorial design process can elevate the healing process. Through this process, the healthcare network can transform from one designed solely for efficacy and sterilization into a beacon of healing that prioritizes comfort on all levels.
Thesis is a time to draw, write, and project. It is a time to speculate one’s own future, while articulating the starting positions of one’s own positions. Thesis is also a time to theatrically present a sense of occasion by constructing a platform to perform the idea that the student drew, wrote, and projected. It is a time to ask oneself: what is the notion of “good” in one’s own work? What is good? The community self v. the hermit self? The choice may be simple at times, or we might say that there does not need to be a choice at all.