The Psychoactive-Chocolate Mental Retreat: project description

The Psychoactive-Chocolate Mental Retreat is an exclusive therapeutic facility situated in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest, just off the edges of Iquitos, Peru. This facility is to heal mentally and emotionally traumatized patients from all over the world with the use of edible substances to alter the state of mind. Just as casual stimulants consumed daily by the general public (coffee, sugar, tea) have effects on our brains and bodies, psychedelic substances mixed with chocolate will be the main tool in healing the patients. The retreat provides spaces for patients to heal and recover through different activities that are essential to the infrastructure itself, including Theobromine cacao and psychoactive gardens, a chocolate factory, herbal baths, therapeutic ceremonial rooms with professional Amazonian shamans and living units for long-term stay. It also consists of a laboratory for scientists to carry out researches on the psychoactive plants within the Amazon and for all patients to study and understand the process they are going through.

This project explores the possibilities of the Theobromine cacao plant within architecture and consumption. The Theobromine cacao tree produces pods which contain cacao beans, or the cocoa beans commonly known for turning into delicious chocolate treats. Cacao beans contain the chemical theobromine, which has beneficial health properties in physically maintaining the heart and the brain. Certain amounts of it can help dilate blood vessels around the heart and has slight mental effects of creating better moods.

The Theobromine cacao grows best tropical habitats, along with other numerous kinds of healing, psychoactive plants. Within the Peruvian Amazon rainforest itself, shamans have been collecting and brewing numerous kinds of plants with mind-altering powers for hundreds of years to connect themselves and the people of their tribes with their own spirituality, resulting in the well-being of emotional and mental states. Through the appeal of chocolate’s taste and form, this mental retreat offers herb-infused delicacies that taste just as good as they will make the patients feel.

Patients would fly to the Iquitos, Peru airport before taking a facility boat into the forest area, as there are no roads leading into the facility. The boat will park at a dock, where patients are welcomed into a reception/café area. From this point on, the patients are free to choose their way of living for the next week or so, comprising of dreamy, relaxing yet energetic atmospheres. They are encouraged get physical exercise through planting and caring for the cacao and herbal plants within different gardens throughout the retreat, in both greenhouses and outdoors, before learning the process of turning cacao beans into delicious, medicinal chocolate treats within the chocolate factory. Patients gain benefits from chocolate aroma therapy through chocolate making as well.

Small, private doctor’s offices are available throughout the retreat for individual sessions for the patients. This is where each patient gets their personalized prescription of different chocolate herbs according to their state of health. As for the main therapy, patients will be scheduled to gather every other night in the ceremonial domes with professional Amazonian shamans to sip on the Ayahuasca chocolate drink. Ayahuasca is known to be one of the most powerful psychedelic substances and has been commonly used within the indigenous Amazonian cultures throughout history for mental well-being. Through this purgative therapy, patients rest together within the dome until sunrise under the shaman’s care. This profound healing process is mostly individual and internal, due to the substance’s ability to alter the minds of each patient differently. As the patients go through this session nightly, the entire retreat will glow in psychedelic-inspired shades from fluorescent lighting, including colors like deep purples, blues and yellow.

The architectural form of this mental retreat could be separated into two parts­ – the orthogonal structures housing the physical activities, such as the chocolate factory, and the dynamic structures housing the mental activities, such as the therapeutic ceremonial rooms. As the medicinal subjects of this project take on the molecular chemistry of chocolate, the materials used within this project take on the similarities of chocolate’s physicality. Chocolate is a phase-change substance, morphing into different solid and liquid shapes according to the temperature. Thus, the Psychoactive-Chocolate Mental Retreat focuses on building materials with the same phase-change physical properties such as glass blocks and tin.

The orthogonal parts are built with glass blocks, reminding patients of the rectangular blocks of chocolate they consume daily as a part of their healing diet. Colored glass blocks allow modified natural sunlight to flow through into the interior spaces during the day and artificial light to flow out into the exterior façade during the night while retaining visual privacy. The dynamic parts of the retreat are shaped according to the melting form of real chocolate. Tin tile sheets are seamed together to create giant, melting domes with gaps filled with glass to allow natural light to flow through.

The circulation of the facility is versatile rather than linear, with different paths for patients to take according to their own will. The healing process is very much individualistic and free to the liking of each patient, with guidance from professionals within the retreat.