Circles of Renewal: an Exchange of Sanctuary
The Programme: Healing through Architecture
My project begins with the belief that architecture can hold emotional weight + that it can be shaped by the lives that move through it. The project explores how the built environment might respond to social trauma: from the scale of the individual to that of the wider community. Within the scheme, architecture unfolds as a spectrum of sanctuaries: personal, guided, and communal - each offering a differing level of exposure, interaction and individual control. The wider site guides users to the sanctuary type designed for their needs.
The Private Sanctuary: The project centres the experience of victims of domestic abuse, a demographic whose needs are typically neglected. Design development began with re-centring their reality and narrative, creating a space users perceive to be 'safe' for their retreat and emotional recovery.
Spatial Sanctuary: The spatial resolution of the scheme is shaped by an intention to respond to the emotional complexity of abuse and healing. Each space within the main building aligns with a stage in the cycle of abuse, with the intention of educating users by physically ‘walking them through’ a broken cycle:
Honeymoon: Ceramic Studio. Creation of ceramic vessels - shaping clay as unspoken therapy.
Tension: Meditation Spaces. Group meditation and 1-1 therapy sessions in waiting period for ceramic firing.
Abuse: Breaking Room. Breaking of ceramics made prior, guiding user detachment from relationships they feel they have invested too much time into to leave.
Reconciliation: Mosaic Sanctuary. The cycle is ended by creation of communal mosaics - instead of putting a broken pot back together.
Material Sanctuary: Rammed earth passively regulates temperatures by absorbing heat during the day and releasing it slowly as temperatures drop. Walls are externally insulated with breathable wood fibre and finished with a lime render, activating thermal mass to preserve the interior’s tactile warmth while ensuring environmental stability and durability in damp climate.
