Vista Rehabilitation

Author

• Matthew Smith

Files

Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

https://hdl.handle.net/10365/22973

Publisher

North Dakota State University

Rights

NDSU Policy 190.6.2

URI

https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf

Abstract

Vista Rehabilitation is a thesis project that explores the possibilities and affects that design, and its relation to nature, has on healing and the overall health of the inhabitants of a structure. In times of sickness and injury, time is spent with professionals in environments that are meant to repair our health in a timely, painless, sensible manner. These environments can be designed to promote a healthy mind and body through a strong connection between the built environment and its natural surroundings. There are many factors that are involved in our body's biological recovery time, and many of these biological responses are induced through our emotions, which can be controlled in some degree by the spaces that surround us. The spaces we inhabit and their exposure to natural elements, such as sunlight and fresh air, contribute to a patient's recovery process. The typology chosen to explore this topic will be a physical rehabilitation center. The location chosen for this building will be Bemidji, Minnesota. Successful completion of this project will give a better understanding of what patients need inorder to recover from physical injury of surgery in the most efficient, effective manner possible. Health care facilities are often times associated as being sterile, artificial environments. By designing spaces that are mentally stimulating, accomplished in part, through their connections with nature, a more holistic level of well-being can be maintained by the patients.

Recommended Citation

Smith, Matthew, "Vista Rehabilitation" (2013). Architecture Theses. 843.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/architecture-theses/843