Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The Psychoactive-Chocolate Mental Retreat : Schematic Proposal

Overall massing of proposed spaces for the Psychoactive-Chocolate Mental Retreat, where patients with traumatic emotional or mental sickness come to heal through medicinal chocolate products, including chocolate bars and drinks mixed with the natural healing chemicals of psychoactive Amazonian plants.

The form of each dome is to be derived from forms made by pouring melted chocolate onto balloons to create round, dripping shells. The dome forms are to create interior spaces that feel vast and endless, for the patients to let go and feel relaxed while being treated.


The fluid form relates to the fluidity of the 'trips' each patient goes through during therapies. During these purgative treatments, patients also go through vomiting to cleanse their bodies of toxicities. The fluidity will exist in both static and dynamic embodiment. 



Experiments have been conducted with melting and molding tin into dripping dome structures. Tin and chocolate will be the two materials forming fluidity within the project. The use of tin will give the project a reflective facade, to blend in with the existing Amazonian trees in the site. 





Current schematic zoning in plans and section show four stories of lifted domes and passage ways for patients to circulate through different activities freely with little limitations. 

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