Sick doesn’t mean dead. But a sick environment can make people dead.
Let's take care of environments to take care of people! Let’s learn to consider beauty not as a superficial aspect but as a factor of stimulation and well-being.
The aim is to include people with Alzheimer's desease in society, making this growing phenomenon known and coming into contact with it through universal languages such as beauty and art, which can be a link between two realities, breaking down the stigma.
As the Alzheimer's disease progresses, the cognitive sphere is impaired, but the emotional sphere, which still reacts to stimuli, remains unaffected. It has been shown that art and beauty have a particularly positive influence on the patient, and this is referred to as art therapy and beauty therapy. Art and the vision of beauty influence the hormone that regulates stress, lowering it and promoting a person's well-being. On the basis of these assumptions, we decided to design a therapeutic garden, recreating a sort of open-air museum. By therapeutic garden we mean an outdoor space, organised according to precise routes and within which there are elements that, by stimulating the senses, positively influence the physical and mental state of people suffering from dementia.
The space will be dedicated to all citizens, with a special focus on those suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
The project is based on elevated walkways that allow people to observe the site and enjoy the park from different perspectives. Along the paths are works of art in the form of stained glass panels that take up the lesson of the Colorfield Painting movement, filtering and giving new beauty through colour to the trees in the park.
Two exedra-shaped ramps start at the entrance and rise up to embrace the entire park, joining in a cylindrical element housing the lift and stairwell.
The stairs allow the visitor to climb even higher, reaching a walkway in a metal structure. The circuit, which is wide but concluded, is dedicated to Alzheimer's patients subject to the phenomenon of Wandering: wandering in space without a precise destination. The circular, enclosed route seeks to provide greater safety and control for the patient while still allowing him or her freedom of movement.
Returning to ground level, we find a walkway leading to a central space dedicated to co-working activities and art therapy.
Please highlight how the concept/idea can be exemplary in this context
It’s a project for everyone. A project that is not an end in itself but improves the quality of the mood of the people who go there. Doing something to leave something. It’s a kind of exchange between user-user and between user and designed space. We have tried to give importance not only to the material itself, but also to the life cycle of the project, the production, and the impact on the environment during its life and its dismantling. The possibility of repetition is guaranteed by modularity and a sustainable choice of materials. It is a project designed to be developed in areas that are now neglected, or temporarily introduced into existing realities. The space also includes rainwater collection systems in the form of tanks and irrigation systems concentrated in the central area of the project, the area set up as a living garden. We have introduced modular solutions to reduce the costs and time of installation and dismantling, for example for the walkways, tree-sculptures and attached roof discs. In terms of materials, we looked for more sustainable alternatives such as recycled steel for the structures, treated with ecological paints, recycled rubber for the walkways, recycled nylon and plastic for the seats, partitions and semi-transparent elements. In addition, during its life the project has no emissions or consumption, except for the lift, which will be able to use solar energy. The space is in fact designed to follow the hours of sunlight, without additional artificial lighting. With reference to the cyclical theme of the structure, once it has been dismantled, the idea is to use the holes where the poles of the structure were inserted to accommodate new plants. Perhaps a kind of new and different aspect of “circularity” is the wellbeing which bounces from person to person, making its echo felt. Around the sick person there are organisations, specialists and families. So the well-being of the person with Alzheimer's is reflected in the people around them
Please highlight how the concept/idea can be exemplary in this context
The idea for the project came from a kind of vision: a winter garden where the trees are completely bare. Scattered around this space, close to the trees, there are panels showing re-elaborations of some of the works of the Colourfield Painting. Walking through the garden, we can see how the two elements, plants and works of art, observed from certain positions, take on a new identity: the backgrounds of the panels, framing the upper part of the plant and at the same time allowing a glimpse of the branches, act as a filter and the visitor thus has the visual sensation of the coloured foliage. The presence of suspended walkways creates paths through the garden and guides the user's experience by offering different perspectives.
Based on this inspiration, we explored the concept of visual sensation and investigated the properties of colour and beauty in relation to art and nature. So we have created an ethereal and idyllic reality where you can walk or stop and let yourself be enveloped by beauty: both that of pure nature and that of nature completed by filters. The use of colour is important: neutral for the paths and then moving on to pastel shades in the central area, where we find these tree sculptures dressed in jewellery, and then the filters, with brighter colours, from warm to cold tones to stimulate and regulate different moods.
The innovation lies in the basic concept and intent, namely the pure enjoyment of the experience of beauty, which can be appreciated by everyone and is a source of well-being, with therapeutic purposes for people with Alzheimer's desease. It is a kind of reappraisal of aesthetics. Beauty is no longer seen as something superficial, but as something rich in value. A rediscovered beauty, functional on a psychophysical level and not practical. Beauty as a founding element and an indispensable quality. Beauty as a universal language, comprehensible to all through the emotions it arouses in each of us. Beauty as a fact of union.
Please highlight how the concept/idea can be exemplary in this context
The project is dedicated to everyone, but with a special focus on people with Alzheimer desease. The garden is designed to be managed by a non-profit organisation, with the support of the Region or the State; it would have free access, and the walkways would be developed so that everyone could use it. Various people who gravitate around the phenomenon of Alzheimer's could be involved in its design, from the patients themselves, to family members, specialists, and organisations. The desire is for this project to be a centre of aggregation around this issue, becoming a symbol of quality.
The aim is to create a space in which an exchange can take place: between place and user, between user and user. A space in which to be stimulated and be a source of reflection. We wanted to create a space to welcome the thoughts and emotions of those who experience it. We wanted users to be able to contribute enriching the place by leaving fragments of themselves after their experience in the garden, so as to create a continuous and transversal dialogue.
So the desire is not to create an exclusive and isolated experience and place for the sick, but to bring them into a reality that they can share with other people and their loved ones. A place where a grandchild can live this experience together with their grandparent. A sort of "middle world" between the usual structures which host Alzheimer patients and the dynamism of the world.
This encounter takes place thanks to the display of graphic or written works created as "comments" once the experience in the park is over. The "comments" are put on panels in the central area of our project, dedicated to co-working and art therapy activities. These "comments", made by people affected by Alzheimer or not, establish a connection and dialogue between users. The aim is to break down the stigma attached to the disease and make people understand that those who are ill are not dead, they are alive, they feel emotions and they are telling us.
Please highlight how this approach can be exemplary
Sick doesn’t mean dead. But a sick environment can make people dead.
Aesthetics, inclusiveness and sustainability are combined in this project in order to obtain a system that is representative as a pole of aggregation for the alzheimer's phenomenon. aesthetics is a fundamental factor and glue in the development of the space and the experience, and its measure is beauty; inclusiveness is the central theme and an essential factor for the project to be realised and consolidate its meaning: there is in fact a world that gravitates around people with Alzheimer's which can experience sociality and encounters in this place, otherwise relegated to the private sphere. Lastly, sustainability is necessary for the feasibility and repeatability of the project and therefore the possibility of reproducing similar spaces in other places, so as to be able to offer this experience to other people gravitating around the Alzheimer's phenomenon.
In addition, we wanted to consider sustainability also in terms of the well-being that is established and falls on the chain of people ranging from the patient, to specialists, to relatives.
Aesthetics and sustainability find their synthesis in the beauty that produces well-being not only in the patient but in all the people we would like to include in this experience.
This is where the difference and uniqueness of our approach lies: in proposing a temporary habitat in which beauty is the basic therapeutic element. With this project we want to emphasise how greater attention and aesthetic care of the environment can become a factor of well-being. And thanks to the qualities of sustainability, we want to re-propose this aesthetic in several places, thus extending the possibility of this experience to several groups of people in different and distant places.
Aesthetics, inclusiveness and sustainability are combined in this project in order to obtain a system that is representative as a pole of aggregation for the alzheimer's phenomenon.
The desire is not to create an exclusive and isolated experience and place for the sick, but to bring them into a reality that they can share with other people and their loved ones. A place where a grandchild can live this experience together with their grandparent. A sort of "middle world" between the usual structures which host Alzheimer patients and the dynamism of the world.
The innovation lies in the basic concept and intent, namely the pure enjoyment of the experience of beauty, which can be appreciated by everyone and is a source of well-being, with therapeutic purposes for people with Alzheimer's desease. It is a kind of reappraisal of aesthetics. Beauty is no longer seen as something superficial, but as something rich in value. A rediscovered beauty, functional on a psychophysical level and not practical. Beauty as a founding element and an indispensable quality. Beauty as a universal language, comprehensible to all through the emotions it arouses in each of us. Beauty as a fact of union.
Perhaps a kind of new and different aspect of “circularity” is the wellbeing which bounces from person to person, making its echo felt. Around the sick person there are organisations, specialists and families. So the well-being of the person with Alzheimer's is reflected in the people around them.
This is where the difference and uniqueness of our approach lies: in proposing a temporary habitat in which beauty is the basic therapeutic element. With this project we want to emphasise how greater attention and aesthetic care of the environment can become a factor of well-being. And thanks to the qualities of sustainability, we want to re-propose this aesthetic in several places, thus extending the possibility of this experience to several groups of people in different and distant places.
As indicated by S World Alzheimer Report 2021 Alzheimer's is a strongly growing phenomenon. The percentages of people suffering from it have been increasing in recent years and will continue to do so.
The first step will focus on packaging this concept into a format, improving the modularity and repeatability aspects. In particular, the focus will be on simplifying as much as possible while maintaining the aesthetics of beauty as a common thread and foundation.
The second step will be devoted to understanding the size of the phenomenon, and identifying sensitive operators, in order to assess the quantity and quality of people and organisations that could be involved in this project. The study of the location of the project and the financial part depend on this research.
Location as this project intends to be an aggregator of the Alzheimer phenomenon, with a suitable location easily accessible to as many people as possible.
Developing a format that is led by a non-profit organisation with public participation and donations from institutional and private bodies.
As far as the organisational part is concerned, having to be set up as a non-profit organisation, it will have to find funding. Therefore, it will be necessary to find the consent of the public bodies in charge, institutional bodies to support this activity, and possibly sponsorship from an association recognised by Alzheimer's and donations.
Based on these aspects, the final project should then be calibrated and formulated.
The format could also include paid services such as transport, catering and entertainment.
No doubt winning this competition would be an honour and a revenge in a way. A confirmation, perhaps. It would certainly be a great stimulus and give courage to face the world of work.
It is a project that we would not abandon. We really believe that such a space could be very useful to the community and that, even if they don't know it yet, people need it, especially all those who gravitate towards the Alzheimer's phenomenon. For now it is a concept, but it could really become a format with its different declinations and be reproduced in different places. My grandfather had Alzheimer's. I didn't have the chance to be around him much and experience it, but I've heard the stories of my grandmother (his wife) and my dad (his son) and I think it's a heartbreaking disease, which really distorts the person in its more advanced stages and creates a loss, a detachment, even though the person is still alive. This project could be an opportunity to come together even in those moments of lack of lucidity: to meet through a shared experience, to get excited and share the emotion.
And then we would definitely travel, to get in touch with as many different realities as possible and investigate alternative approaches. We've never had much opportunity to travel the world and touch different realities, and that's perhaps the greatest need at the moment, especially after the lockdown we've been through. To also travel for work, perhaps by doing an internship abroad.
Also, by December we will both have graduated, so the goal is to better understand who we are and what path we want to take.
@Barbaglia, 2022
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