Unearthing Trauma

Housing / Sustainability / Healthcare / Master Thesis, Spring 2023

UTSA, Mentor: Vincent Canizzaro

El Paso, Texas, USA

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a 25% increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide. Today we experience life in a constantly changing world where injuries inflicted upon humanity are becoming more and more obscured. So much has become undetectable, almost as if it was even invisible. Commonly referred to by the U.S. Military, invisible injuries such as Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have affected the very structure of living in a healthy and safe environment. The way we experience architecture in our public healthcare facilities plays an essential role in solving these issues of what is seen and, more importantly, what we cannot. It is important to treat not only the physiological aspects of human beings but also the psychological parts. Modern Architecture has evoked architectural design to a purely visual ideal form that lacks a deeper connection to the human psyche.