I recommend Nikos Salingaros' "Anti-Architecture and Deconstruction".  Salingaros has argued that certain architecture can make people physically ill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikos_Salingaros

Is this a design thesis or an architectural history thesis?

If this is a design thesis, I think you work between first hand accounts of the space and actually drawing the space or the perception of space.

If this is a history thesis, I think your focus is way too narrow. I could see a paper on architecture and healing, perhaps looking at Paimio as an example to contrast the Rudolph example. If you are more interested in the macabre, you could look at the films and spaces of Dario Argento or Lucio Fulci. In any case, I think by just focusing on this one building you are greatly limiting your ability to analyze this topic which in and of itself is interesting.

I had students try ans analyze spaces that they liked, that felt pleasant, or just 'good' to to be in. They photographed, described in writing, drew freehand sketches, made measured drawings. Most of the good spaces had to do with scale, and qualities of light, sound, temperature...

I am sure this approach to define 'sick' spaces will work for this too.

eric chavkin

the books you refer to are pretty much useless for your project

Existence, Space & Architecture = C. Norberg-Schulz

The Architectural Uncanny = Tony Vidler

Heterotopias = M. Foucault

I don't know Bollnow's Human Space

Off the top I would look to texts like Defensible Space (Newman), Personal Space (Sommer), Hidden Dimension, social anthropology texts ie Goffman. Chris Alexander's Community and Privacy has good methodology, as well as his Pattern Language.

I would tend to shy from the phenomenological or existential approach.

I think this will be a very tough thesis to draw anything meaningful from. The problem I see is the approach relies on emotional or psychological responses to space which are highly inconsistent. The obvious methodological problem is taking a space that has already been determined 'sick' and drawing conclusions on sick spaces from it. This is like the approach Newman took in writing 'Defensible Space', extrapolating spatial conditions that he believed led to a space that was prone to criminal activity. One could find these spatial conditions elsewhere in relatively crime free locations, thus questioning his conclusions.

Basically, I think it's hard to take a deterministic view of spatial conditions given the range of conditions that human beings can happily dwell. This however could turn into a thesis on how this determinism comes to color our views on architecture and whether they mask more fundamental issues (like the fact that mental health issues would be expected to occur in a mental health center, yet the architecture is blamed).

You might find something relevant to this topic with this book:

Architecture and Psychoanalysis: Peter Eisenman and Jacques Lacan

A very valid issue to analyze.

Branch out to medical and psychological studies.

Check out this article. http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_1099/oc99aom.htm interestingly, Rudolph gave his last interview to us for a piece in a design journal entitled Style I published for the university of Tennessee. Upon his death, the journal sold out at Urban Center Books in an afternoon . . . .

Thank You all for the Feedback

@won and done williams: This definitely is not trying to be a historical research thesis, its leaning more on design. But I agree, I am looking into having a building or other works, to contrast Rudolphs Center. I also am very much interested in the macabre, ve just found it diffuclt to situate myself within this topic, I have not been given very good direction, not many people around here are fully interested in things like this, Your suggestions are very well taken.

@eric chavkin: Ive been doing serious research, but I havent come up with sources like the ones youve suggested, which would be more "spot on", perhaps I havent found those because I havent been able to place myself firmly in this topic.

@Lowell Morin I agree completely, thats been my issue, I am trying to find a strong footing on this to offer something "more" than just wishy washy outcomes.

Perhaps, I should establish a larger view first? Like suggested:

Architecture & Healing

Architecture & Psychoanalysis

Architecture & Medical/Psychological Studies?

Architecture & the Macabre (death even)

Hmm, ?????

Macabre? OK. Then look at this film for inspiration. The bw Haunting dir Robert Wise is apropos and also excellent cinema, with a great architecture prolog..Based on a Shirley " the lottery" Jackson novel it is is also Ray Bradbury's favorite film. And it is about a 'sick' haunted house. The filmed remake is not good.

The Vidler book surveys macabre  literature referencing architecture but nothing on film. 

SEQUENCES: SAW ONLY THE MOON by Lars Kordetzky

"Subject of the book is an architectural encounter with the psyche, the starting point being an intervention in a solitary confinement cell of a psychiatric clinic in 1997. Crumbling edges, shifting perceptions, a world of confinement and liberated space, ... a network of thoughts and illusions, ... "sequences” describes the development of architectonic structures in an in-between world of unstable equilibrium. Architecture, art, psychiatry, psychology and philosophy are all linked by perception. By means of pictures, drawings and (thought) models, the different layers are exposed. The book has no beginning and no end, it offers an insight into various sequences involved in the design process."

director david cronenberg may have already 'written' this thesis for you. see if you can find a copy of his very early movie 'stereo'. 

it's kind of hard to watch, though. fascinating, but...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereo_(film) 

i'll try that again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereo_(film)

you want to be an Architect version of Jigsaw?

i will go one step beyond lowell, I think that, without addressing firstly your intention, you're nowhere. your interest in the macabre (which is macabre only in second hand accounts - its fearful and life-denying in the first) and your duty in avoiding the subject matter of macabre cannot go hand in hand on the same plateau. you are already presenting the dichotomy to yourself: you will have to decide whether to tread a sunlit healthcare architecture course or delve into a dusky figurative architectural method. there are moral issues the architect has to deal with that neither an auteur nor a litterateur have to; unless you are designing some sort of horror theme show, which is fine.

There is another kind of conflation I think I notice: you mention a spirituality along with this macabre darkness: are you a christian catholic by any chance? anyway, the implication is that you turn your asylum into a place of worshipping its own reason of being. but there is a dichotomy again: how can you cure a sickness that you hold to be divine (as a secularist even - an academic sociological stance will supercede psychological intervention)? this is  almost middle ages stuff; an amalgamation of the detached observer role and that of a witch doctor . contrarily, the ancient pre-hellenic greeks certainly saw madness as a divine paradigmatic fission, but this dictated their appreciation of it as unavoidable  having nothing to do with the psychology of its hosts.

i am not saying that its not possible to be inspired from literature and cinema but your interest in the 'macabre' must be well placed as an architect, no? on a pragmatic, yet extremely potent manner, to what extent must the supervisory control exerted by the overlords, the medical staff, of the asylum via the architecture be balanced with the rights, liberties and  well being of the patients also via architecture? the architectural love child of Jigsaw and Mother Theresa. Have you gone and visited actual asylums? I would recommend that over watching too many david cronenberg movies (not that i recommend not watching some)

Thanks Tammuz, I am interested in the macabre, but do not want that do drive this topic.

But perhaps I do preface this research with Ethics of Architecture, like you mentioned?

If you're interested, my thesis dealt with similar issues. 

http://issuu.com/adrianlatona/docs/2010_la_tona_one

Basics, basics, basics. Treading with the notion that you have to study a "sunlit healthcare architecture" versus a macabre somber old hospital or visiting actual asylums is out of the question. You have to understand the basics; no one likes to spend time at a hospital or an asylum. If you have an understanding of how a Paul Rudolph structures makes you feel or react your almost there. Cold, detached, repetitive, rigid, austere, heavy, color less, this are some of the words I associate with the architecture of Paul Rudolph, and I would go insane if I live in a place like that. It has nothing to do with "middle ages stuff", just the negative projections that certain buildings have as well as the negativity that they attract, (and I am not talking about just negative people), force/energies.

nieblaf;

i didnt say he has to study any building let alone a sunlit one.i try to help him with his ideas and approach, or the lack of one, not with any specific building. kindly do not de- or re-contextualize my statements. my ankles do not care for being yapped at.

@nieblaf ...  I agree, there are energies that make space project certain "feelings" like detachment, heavy, and sterile, but How can I tap into that? How can I make that subject pliable? Meaning how can I deconstruct that idea and make it a thesis/argument. Maybe Ive missing it? Where can I find that argument, either for or against this way of thinking. How can I, if possible, validate these claims?

@adriana_latona Beautiful Book, great writing. Thank You for sharing.

there's likely hard research on this subject published in the journal of environmental psychology - might be another place to look.

Hello everyone,

I saw my name mentioned and thought I would join in the discussion. ArchoPathologist has a nice problem outlined. Yes, Paul Rudolph's architecture is oppressive because it uses and applies a geometry that disturbs our perceptual system. This is almost deliberately the function of following the Modernist design typologies, and Rudolph was a modernist. On the other hand, he and most other architects of his generation thought naively that they were designing "great" spaces, not oppressive ones.

Thus, any research into this has to ignore the so-called architectural theory that falsely validated oppressive spaces as "liberating", and dig deeply into which geometries, surfaces, and materials are more natural than others. If you look at the series of essays I'm now writing with Michael Mehaffy over at Metropolis, you will see where we are going. 

I would also recommend avoiding reading Deleuze and Guattari, who in my opinion are just obfuscating with philosophical words without much meaning for architecture. That goes as well for other names suggested in this discussion. Look at what they praise (as theorists) or what they have built (as architects): are they healing or are they macabre structures that make you sick?

Best wishes,

Nikos

"Architecture has the power to move us, change us, and manipulate us..."

So the questions is 'How'. In other words, what is the medium (or mediums) through which architecture interacts with us? It's the combination of different elements in architecture that ultimately results in a specific designed space, which in turn has the potential to "move us, change us, manipulate us"

One way that architecture interacts with us is through our senses.  We position ourselves geographically, spatially, and mentally within our surroundings through our senses.  Our senses can in turn evoke emotional and psychological reactions.  Try looking into this.

Another method is to narrow down your focus on a specific mental illness; since symptoms for each psychological illness varies greatly, it might be worth while to just focus on one and really figure out how spatial elements affect these specific patients. (ie: there has been a lot of design research done on Alzheimers and Autism) 

What an Honor Nikos! Thank You for your input. Very Much Appreciated.

@ArchoPathologist

Hey I'm also trying to do some what same project, my quest to heal mental illness though architecture.... I need to ask u that for what degree are u doing this thesis bachelor, masters or doctoral??? If it is bachelor then can u help me out in research I have really short time to almost 4 nd half months n my advisors are asking me to leave this topic as it will take a lot of time for reasearch but if I can get a proper approach then I think I can convince them to do this project... what do u say? Is it possible in 5 months???