Gardens of self-contemplation - Using nature as a catalyst for improving the human state of mind

VIT University

Project idea

In India, mental health is not considered as a real illness or not given much importance/care that
is required. There are many millennial including working professionals and students those who suffer from
mild mental illness like stress, anxiety, panic attacks, depression everyday but ignore their mental health until
it reaches a stage where it is unavoidable. Considering the country’s literacy rate and belief system, most of the
severely affected people are believed to be in the influence of black magic or evil. Accepting the fact that the
person is mentally ill and needs counselling can be socially degrading for some people and thus being the main
reason of people not accepting it publicly. Even educated people ignore the stress until it turns out to be
physically disturbing.
The aim of the project is to create more awareness about mental health of millennial and have more acceptance
towards mildly mentally disturbed people.

Project description

The project explores the possibility of architecture being a catalyst in healing mentally disturbed patients.
Pune, being an educational hub and the city with the highest number of floating population, where there are
numerous competitions between thousands of individuals every day, mental health is completely ignored
among all of this so to create awareness, a project that can help heal from temporary mental disorders can be
very beneficial to a large number of individuals residing in the city making a more socially acceptable way to
get therapy

Technical information

The site is located in Koregaon park, Pune with a site area of 13,750 sq.m. and a proposed built up of 7,400 sq.m. The detail explores the possibility of introducing green facades for the service blocks and including maximum green spaces.