Nurul Nabilah Izzati (1002873)
‘Invisible Dialogues’ Studio
I am designing a reimagined community space for the elderly with dysthymia such that they are set on path for recovering old relationships and building new ones within the community.
For this midterms what I focused on two outcomes. First, I wanted to build a compelling case for elderly with dysthymia and thoroughly highlight and scrutinize the built environment through their lens. I am still in the midst of contacting a welfare organization (to find out more about elderly with dysthymia, from the practitioners themselves). Hence, I was only able to give insights from my interview with my close friend who has been diagnosed with dysthymia. With this aim in mind, I focused on highlighting stressors in three main environments – rental flats (typically where independent living seniors reside), void decks (informal community space) and kopitiams/coffeshops (public gathering space), as these three are the most frequented places by my target group. I elaborated on these stressors through isometric drawings, plans, section drawing and a few key images from my site visit.
The second outcome of this midterm is to propose a framework for macro strategies. Since my chosen site (as previously mentioned) is a green site, there needs to be an intentional approach at every instance of introducing a strategy. So, I had to utilize several methods to justify my approach. First, the site will be cut across almost diagonally to make way for a shorter and more relaxed walking path (away from previously identified stressors along the journey map). Next, in alignment with the studio masterplan, I intend to activate the waterfront zone, as a means of placemaking and creating small pockets to stimulate the brain process from the ‘isolation’ to ‘inspiration’ stages of dysthymia. Lastly, the strategy would be to have curated program spaces of varying levels of ‘social participation’ to ease people back into the community.
It was unfortunate that some of the panelists had to leave, so most of the feedback that I received were regarding the clarification of the mental health condition, and the overall intention of the project. Nonetheless, I foresee lots of development to be made to add complexity, and nuances. I have already scheduled a short interview with a welfare organization called O’JOY to continue building my understanding on dysthymia within the elderly population.