Any public building dealing with mental health inevitably encounters the problem of stigma. This investigation develops physical conditions at architectural and urban design scales that challenge and diffuse normal boundaries of the mental health environment, in a new teaching and treatment facility.
Constituent program elements are interrogated and blended with the civic and commercial programs of the immediate city context, embracing street vendors, commuters and patient. Billboard typologies are referenced for a self-signing vocabulary that broadcasts and attracts, while light and water are employed as tools both of therapy and outreach.