For me, architecture is a service--a way of helping people and the environment--and I wanted my thesis to reflect this idea. This thesis combines human rehabilitation and environmental remediation in order to study how these two types of healing interact. Specifically, the program of the building is a rehabilitation center for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) patients (who stereotypically have an obsession with order and cleanliness). Both the patients and the site are going through the process of healing, but they are doing so in ways that juxtapose each other: while the dirt, plants, and water on the site are made cleaner, the patients are undergoing therapy that helps them understand that it is okay to be "dirtier."
This brings into question what the terms "clean" and "dirty" really mean. Through my year-long research into OCD rehabilitation, environmental remediation, and the meaning of dirt, I came across a quotation that summed up this idea within my thesis. It came from the appropriately titled book, Dirt:
"A landscape architect's understanding of dirt--as a fertile medium--overturns the term's negative connotations to understand it as explicitly productive." (Born 8)
Therefore, my thesis explores dirt's productivity and challenges visitors' and patients' preconceptions of order and disorder. Overall, however, my goal was to create a project that allowed a forgotten, polluted site to be reclaimed by the city and for the patients, through therapy, to reclaim their lives. / Master of Architecture / For me, architecture is a service—a way of helping people and the environment—and I wanted my thesis to reflect this idea. This thesis combines human rehabilitation and environmental remediation in order to study how these two types of healing interact. Originally, the program of my building was going to be a rehabilitation clinic for drug addicts, located on a polluted site that needed to be remediated, because then the patients and the site would have the parallel experience of being cleansed of poison. But Dr. Paul Emmons suggested that I instead design a rehabilitation center for OCD patients (who stereotypically have an obsession with order and cleanliness). This was intriguing to me because while the patients and the site would still both be healing, they would be doing so in ways that juxtaposed each other: while the dirt, plants, and water on the site would be made cleaner, the patients would be undergoing therapy that helped them understand that it is okay to be “dirtier.”
This brought into question what the terms “clean” and “dirty” really mean. Through my year-long research into OCD rehabilitation, environmental remediation, and the meaning of dirt, I came across Mary Douglas’ book Purity and Danger, where she defines dirt as “matter out of place” and states: “As we know it, dirt is essentially disorder. There is no such thing as absolute dirt: it exists in the eye of the beholder” (Douglas 2). However, the most important and meaningful quote that summed up this idea within my thesis came from another book, appropriately titled Dirt:
“A landscape architect’s understanding of dirt—as a fertile medium—overturns the term’s negative connotations to understand it as explicitly productive.” (Born 8)
A simple example of redefining dirt that many of us already have in our homes is a pizza stone or cast iron pan, which are both seasoned with the leftover “dirt” of food. Neither of these items are ever meant to be cleaned with soap (they require only water) and the flavors of past foods help to enrich all future foods you make with it. Therefore, my thesis explores dirt’s productivity and challenges visitors’ and patients’ preconceptions of order and disorder. Overall, however, my goal was to create a project that allowed a forgotten, polluted site to be reclaimed by the city and for the patients, through therapy, to reclaim their lives.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/78681 |
| Date | 09 August 2017 |
| Creators | Tope, Alyssa Renee |
| Contributors | Architecture, Emmons, Paul F., Kelsch, Paul J., Piedmont-Palladino, Susan C. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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