The abuse of heroin and opiates in the Northeast United States has grown to reach epidemic proportions over the past fifteen years. As this epidemic rages on, many victims of addiction are unable to find or afford treatment, and unfortunately, most insurance companies only fund 30 to 60 days of treatment although it can often take that long to clear the drugs from an addict's system. This can lead to a lifelong cycle of recovery and relapse. For a solution to this problem of recovery, many recovery therapists look to Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. At the peak of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs pyramid is the need for self-actualization: the desire "to become everything that one is capable of becoming." This "need" aligns with the predominant goal of the mental health recovery paradigm, which is for people to "strive to reach their full potential" (Henwood et. all). It is typically understood how architecture provides for basic physiological needs and safety for people in need, but how might it provide for "upper-level" needs, such as Maslow's concept of self-actualization? This idea of self-actualization relies heavily on the notion of individuality, creativity, and inspiration, so providing a framework for a user to work and create within could be beneficial to their growth and betterment as an individual. According to Kenney Miller, cofounder of the Maine Harm Reduction Alliance, "Using the arts, particularly story telling, may help rehumanize people and empower them to feel they have a voice and they have something worth saying... The more we can empower people in the recovery process, the more successful it can be" (MacQuarrie). Because addiction affects not only individuals, but rather their entire community, providing opportunity for empowerment on a personal scale must be able to lead to empowerment and reconstruction on a community scale as well. In a city such as Lewiston, Maine, which has lost its former textile-making based identity, residents have lost hope for job opportunity and have turned t drug and alcohol abuse as a coping mechanism. A new movement towards arts and skilled crafts has recently erupted in the downtown area, which is starting to bring back Lewiston's Identity as a maker-based community. This thesis will contribute to and solidify Lewiston's maker-based movement forward, while simultaneously looking backward, learning and growing from the scars that history has embedded in the city. It will also focus on the ways in which the physical environment affects not only creativity and self improvement, but the restoration of the human mind from an unhealthy state through internally-focused spaces as well as peripheral links to context and community. / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu