One of the leading illnesses that is growing worldwide is Depression; Nowadays, it is described as the “common cold” of mental illness. In the future, the need to deal with this large number of patients will be essential and programming towards treatment facilities should start from the present, if not already started.
In recent years, art therapy has begun to be used successfully to help treat depression, and there has been a growing interest in bringing the visual arts and other modalities into health care facilities.
The healing power of art therapy can be explained in three words, movement, connection and inspiration. In most mental illnesses, especially depression, the individual becomes static, avoiding all activities. Art therapy changes their mood by bringing back there self confidence. This will also reconnect them to their families and society, while also inspiring the individual to create goals for themselves and to try to achieve them. In other words, they return to more normal lives.
These three words also become the three design principles for the building. The proposed site is located in the health corridor of NYU in New York, since New York is one of the few states in the United States that issues an art therapy license and NYU has one of the oldest and best art therapy programs in the nation, while NYU also needs to expand their program by 2031. The site, being a pedestrian way promotes connection and when program is added to a connector route it creates movement within the way. Inspiration can be created through many ways; Color, Shape of the building, Materials and through Light. Due to the fact that layers of privacy play an essential role in the well being of patients, Then there would be four driving forces in the designing the center; Movement, Connection, Inspiration and Privacy layers.