House of Rituals, Book II

HOUSE OF RITUALS

Vol.02

H O U S E O F R I T U A LS Technological University of Eindhoven Master Architecture, Building and Planning

AUTHOR Marco Sironi

SUPERVISORS Jacob Voorthuis Jan S chevers Sjef Van Hoof

WITH Floor Frings

ACADEMIC YEAR 2019-20

CONTE NTS

01 P R E FAC E

0 5 H O U S E O F R I T U A LS

Obser vations

Strateg y

The detachment

Palimpsests

Intentions

Manifesto Rituals

02 R E FLECTION OF THE MIRROR Hiding the eternal Non stop S ociety

0 3 S T I G M A A N D TA B O O

06 SPECIFIC LANDSCAPE Natural Atmospheres

07 BUILDING R E L AT I O N S H I P S

Suicide and S ociety

Relationship between patients and space

Data and Definitions

Can Space improve relationships?

What is it about?

S ocial Factors Developmental or mediating risks Suicide B ehaviour process Define space

04 CAS E STU D I E S Today’s issue of S cuicide and Euthanasia Data and Definitions Current European juridical situation Meggie C entres Dignitas

08 A SERIES OF CHAMBERS On behalf of Space Thresholds Chambers

09 WOMB Public space Threshold

CONTE NTS

10 FIREPLACE S ocial Space Threshold

11 WELL Intimate space Threshold

12 CAVE Personal Space Data and Definitions The possesion of the view The last chamber ; bath

CONCLUSION Personal obser vation Acknowledgement

00 SOURCES Bibliography Sitography and Filmography Images

AB STRACT

As a continuum of the studies conducted in the first book and using the principles distilled as guidelines, this project has the objective of reflecting and giving a possible answer with a spatial strategy on the contemporary phenomenon of detachment between the primary human experience and space.

In particular working on the human separation with the theme of death and memory that have been occurred in the modern world. A connection that has generated the beginning of cultures and societies and that now seems to have lost his importance and role.

Therefore, the relevance of this work is in its attempt to rethink the contemporary problem linked precisely to this detachment on the theme of death which today has new problems and consequently new needs.

A theme that as it was possible to understand from the research has encouraged the primitives to erect the first stable structures becoming a catalyst of civilizations and that however now appears to be hidden away from the public realm.

The work starts from a theoretical position that doesn’t disdain to look at the discipline, even if the chosen topic involves irrational and phenomenological spheres linked to the individual. Consisting on personal work, this project is also guided by subjective convictions, with the aim to be a possible manifesto of “Utilitas� as an architectural translation of human sensorial experience where architecture should achieve again the role of supporting human lives and symbol of life and existence.

01

P R E FAC E Introduction

OBSERVATIONS Ref lection on the research

The projects start from the reflection on the research conducted and developed with the first book with the outcome that some strongholds have been detected along the way.

Eventually, the analysis underlined that there are layers of a common pattern that characterize how mankind bound his existence onto the earth through space and architecture. A tissue that connects humankind despite the geographical location and the various cultural backgrounds.

This connecting flesh revolves around the process by which the physical dimension disappears; death, memory, and celebration.

These common outlines are physically represented in places that can be called heterotopies, a threshold to other spheres. Between them, there are symbolic and spatial analogies.

Looking closely, it seems that among these sites there is a dichotomy between the outside - the negative envelope affected by the context and the specificity of the place - and the inner space - the void that is the element that establishes those spatial similarities and determines connections that go beyond place and time.

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Consequently, interested by these “outside of all places”, it was necessary to understand what were the reasons that encouraged primitive men to build the first spiritual place, finding an answer in the theory that sees the origin of permanent architecture as a place of worship and the studies of Mircea Eliade. A philosopher of religions who explains how probably the repetition of rituals - the action of opening and closing the human circle around the fire - to commemorate the deceased members of their social groups, first created a demarcation in the territory and then solidified into architecture.

Therefore, this act of commemorating the death of the group’s membership has translated into a material boundary called architecture. A space of another dimension, first enclosed by the human ring and later by an architectural limit. These proto-temples during the time have been the catalysts of civilization becoming “dispositif” that as someone said, were more solid than the dwellings of the living.

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T H E D E TA C H M E N T Loosing the connection

Architecture that was dedicated to death and memory showed the instinct need of people to remember and be remembered: it is clear how this process between life and death had been essential to establish the presence of man onto the world.

Space erect for “death” – mausoleum, funerary, cemetery and so on - it has a different task from all other architectures. On one hand, architecture can be said, has the main purpose to be a shelter for human beings. On the other hand, space as a place of worship, “It wants to memorize and signify the existence of the sacred realm, the world behind” [1] .

This desire of memory and celebration as we have seen is rooted in great historical civilizations, who left to us a tradition of rituals and “house” of the dead, which as Aldo Rossi sustained, became true cities of the dead.

1.

Heathcote, E. (1999). “Monument Builders: Modern Architecture and Death”.

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In fact, the topic of the “city of the dead” has been analyzed, under various lenses in Architecture and literature.

For example, Aldo Rossi (1931-1997)’s cemetery San Cataldo in Modena (1971) developed his funerary complex on the concept of “cities of the dead”, placed next to the “city of the living”. As well as, the Italian writer Italo Calvino in the book “The invisible cities” described all the cities that Marco Polo – the main character - admire during his travel. One of those urban settlements is the “city of the dead”, which is described as the inversion of the city of the living (air become earth, space becomes void, etc).

Calvino described the necropolis as the negative of the city, where silence and absence are celebrated.

Even though the themes of death, memory, and celebration were essential in shaping our civilizations, and many philosophers, sociologist, and architect have remarked its importance, it seems that its meaning and its significance has been forgotten. These eternal topics, that revolve around life and essential part of humans, are marginalized especially by Western societies, where nothing can be apparently stopped.

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K. Puente. Fedora city

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However, in a world where architecture seems to have lost its primordial meaning in favour to functional and economical purposes, the American artist James Turrell, through his artistic research and his interest in light as a subject rather than a tool, seems to want to awake in us the perception lost. A different consciousness from the one in act every day and experienced in the contemporary cities.

He has matured the ability to shape space to the point of delimiting its essence, thus creating places where there is an awareness of the action of our seeing and that reflects the characteristics of those sacred places that men have erected over time. Thresholds where a different consciousness is activated from the one at stake every day.

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J. Turrell. Skyspace Lech

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02

R E FLECTION OF TH E MIRROR Rising of new problems and needs

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HIDING THE ETERNAL Contemporaty idea of death

Nowadays, in capitalist societies life goes on and on, like children on a carousel, people are riding the machine of the system every day.

Similar to kids, people do not want to stop playing, they do not intend to jump down and walk away neither they can realistically. Once you are out of the game you are out of the system. It is an obsessive-compulsive game.

Globalization besides the spreading of products and uses as well as closing up the distances of cultures has also brought a common desperate refusal of the discussion to die. Nonetheless, over the last twenty years, we have seen a constant daily base debate on pension, life expectations, and social welfare, as well as, the progressive transformation of the information on death.

Likewise, by consequence of the technological advances the population age increase, characterized also by the great medical achievement that extended the life of the patient with serious dieses impressively.

In a certain sense, society is fighting, with all its weapon at disposal, against death.

But why are we combatting death and on the other hand is it really possible to talk about life, hiding the other face of the medal?

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Death depresses the market; the problem is that death does not sell. Its presence removes costumers from the market and most importantly creates a sadness in other consumers.

Thus, death with its linked rituals has been banned from the modern capitalistic society. In the contemporary city, there is no time and space for mourning, funerals. “Traffic cannot stop, shops cannot close. No lent, no Muharram.

Always Christmas, always Mardi Gas.” In a way, the process of hiding death washed away the knowledge of what architecture knew about rituals and memory. “Functionalism was pretty much an anti-death movement.” [1] However, how it has been explained with latter research, death and memory were the palimpsests of society and inevitably related to life and its cycle.

1/2 Editorial. (2019). San Rocco Magazine: Muerte.

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“In an archaic society, there was some ritual associated with death more or less every day (just look at India and see how death is still everywhere). People got acquainted with death, they followed its protocols, they learned death, to a certain extent. Now we are completely unprepared for death as if we do not even know it will one day happen to us.” [2]

Image of the Author (2018).

Ebikuro - Non stop city.

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If death and memory, translated in architectural spaces of another dimension, were the catalyzers of civilization and organized consequently the daily life of people;

HOW CAN WE THINK TODAY AT SPACES THAT REPAIR THE GAP BETWEEN HUMAN AND DEATH, CONNECTING AGAIN THE TWO SIDE OF THE MEDEL; LIFE AND DEATH? HOW CAN SPACE FIND AGAIN AN IMPORTANT MEANING AS IT WAS AT ITS ORIGIN AND THUS ANSWERING CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS AND NEES ROSE FROM THE ATTUAL THEME OF DEATH? A SPACE FOR MORTAL BEING A HOUSE FOR LIVING

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Loos, A. (1921). Mausoleum for art historian Max Dvorak

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that reducing suicide-related mortality is a “global imperative,� a welcome contrast to the traditional taboo that has suarrounded suicidal behaviours (SBs).

Turecki, G. (2015, September 16). Suicide and suicidal behaviour

N O N STO P S O C I ETY Rising of new problems and needs

During other times in human history, when prohibition and censorship have silenced important aspects of human life, like a mirror, the same aspect has been reflected and amplified in another direction, acquiring other shapes.

For example, during the years of Counter-Reformation of the Church, in an overall trend of repression, trying to maintain and establish its power on the Protestant Reformation (1517), restricted significantly erotic art and sexuality. Aspects that during the previous year of Renaissance were accepted and expressed by fine pieces of art such as Palazzo Tè of Gonzaga in Mantova, which was the house for the leisure and entertainment.

This period of repression failed and the force repression of a rising phenomenon brought to the establishment and development of this latter.

It is something that is constantly repeating in human history.

Not surprisingly today, the process of hiding death from the public realm has consequently led to the evolution and increase of other phenomena.

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1.

Star, T. (2014, September 14).

Preventing suicide: A global imperative.

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It is worth to mention that the rise of new death cause by self-injuries, prompted the World Health Assembly to adopt the first-ever Mental Health Action Plan of the World Health Organization (WHO) In May 2013 in order to tackle and reduce the rate of suicide in countries by 10% by 2020.

The objective of the report done by the WHO was to prioritize suicide prevention on the global public health and public policy agendas and to raise awareness of suicide as a public health issue. The data shown in the following pages is elaborated and extracted for that report which was developed through a global consultative process and based on systematic reviews of data and evidence together with inputs from partners and stakeholders and other reports and studies done consequently. [1]

S E L F H A R M T R E N D 19 5 9 - 2 0 0 0 per 100.000 population

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However, the problem appears to have boosted in recent years arriving at causing “800 000 death by suicide every year; that’s one person every 40 seconds. Suicide occurs throughout life.

“Despite the evidence that many deaths are preventable, suicide is too often a low priority for governments and policy-makers.”

2.

World Health Organisation, W. (n.d.). Suicide.

[2]

Overall, it is proven that suicide occurs generally more in a richer country with a visible difference in genders. In fact, in whether society, three times as many men die of suicide than women do, but in low- and middle-income countries the male-to-female ratio is much lower at 1.5 men to each woman.

However, 50% of all violent deaths account for suicide in men whereas, 71% in women.

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There are more death from suicide than from war and homicide together.

55%

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Distribution of countries by death rate, male

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Distribution of countries by death rate, females

≼ 15.0

10 - 14.9

5 - 9.9

<5

37

AFRICA

AMERICA

S O UTH EAST AS IA

EUROPE

EASTE R N M E D ITE R R E N EAN

WE STE R N PAC I F I C

5.0

38

10

G LO B A L AVA R A G E 10.6

20

25

30

39

40

G LO B A L S U I C I D E S B Y A G E A N D I N C O M E year (2016) - per 100.000 population

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2.

Adoloscent mental health. (n.d.).

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Taking into consideration the age range, suicide rates see a higher level between people age 70 years both women and men. Whereas, in other countries, suicide rates are way much more relevant among early ages.

In fact, the data shows that globally self-harm is the second cause of death in 15-29 years old individuals.

“An estimated 62 000 adolescents died in 2016 as a result of self-harm. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in older adolescents (15–19 years). Nearly 90% of the world’s adolescents live in low-or middle-income countries and more than 90% of adolescent suicides are among adolescents living in those countries. Risk factors for suicide are multifaceted, including harmful use of alcohol, abuse in childhood, stigma against help-seeking, barriers to accessing care and access to means. Communication through digital media about suicidal behaviour is an emerging concern for this age group.” [2]

C A U S E O F D E AT H I N A G E 15 - 2 9 Crude death rate per 100.00 population age 15 - 29

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3.

Prof. G. Turecki and Prof. David A. Brent (2015, June 15)

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It is important to mention that suicide is a sensitive issue, and even illegal in some countries, therefore the data at disposal, as reported directly by the WHO, it is very likely that it is under-reported.

The problem seems to be an iceberg that immersed in the sea of society. Just the pick with already a relevant number is visible, however, the problem consists of a far big dimension, hidden away, categorized by different labels or even considered a crime.

In regard to suicide, it is believed by the expert that the real numbers incredibly overstep the one at mapped. In fact, it seems that for each suicide, there are more than 20 suicide attempts.

Likewise, in countries with a lack of good vital registration data, suicide may often be misclassified as an accident or another cause of death. Registering a suicide is a complicated procedure involving several different authorities, often including law enforcement. And in countries without reliable registration of deaths, suicides simply die uncounted.

“Precise global estimates of suicide rates are difficult to obtain, as only 35% of WHO Member States have comprehensive vital registration with at least five years of data. Globally, there are an estimated 11·4 suicides per 100,000 people, resulting in 804,000 suicide deaths worldwide […] Non-fatal SBs occur at significantly higher frequencies than suicides”. [3]

AT T E M P T E D A N D N O N - F ATA L S U I C I D E Relation between beath and attempted suicide - rate per 100.00 population

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03

S T I G M A A N D TA B O O The extreme revolt of the overwhelmed self

SUICIDE AND SOCIETY The idea of death nowadays

As it was mention before death has been hidden away by the capitalistic society and consequently all his topic seems to have become taboo. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nobody wants to talk about suicide. The silent reflect the nineteen-century French medical context in which the act of taking your own life was reconceptualized through the notion of deviance, and suicide was grouped together with criminals, the mentally ill, alcoholics, prostitutes, and homosexuals. This new diagnosis translated the debate about suicide into a medical discourse which treated its associated behaviours as pathologies.â&#x20AC;? [1] However, in the case of the act of self-harm, it is perhaps an old story.

Suicide, frequently during antiquity, in which it was considered an honourable death. [2] For example, the Stoics saw suicide possible when the means to live a life appropriate to our nature (i.e. equipped with those natural goods that are proper to us, such as health) are not available. More recently, 4615 Japanese pilots during the Second World War, in order not to be defeated in combat, were committing suicide by swooping down with planes on enemy positions. The kamikaze, when they got on the plane, took part in a ritual where dressed in white, the colour of mourning, they received a white urn for their ashes.

1.

Prof. G. Turecki and Prof. David A. Brent (2015, June 15)

2.

Prof. G. Turecki and Prof. David A. Brent (2015, June 15)

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It became with Christianity, an object of particular reprobation. The Christian prohibition happened since the first Fathers of the Church with Augustine and Thomas who constituted the Christian philosophical canon in this regard.

St. Augustine

God’s command ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ is to be taken as forbidding self-destruction, especially as it does not add ‘thy neighbour’.

Though rarely, the courts tried the suicide corpse and the family’s property was confiscated for the king’s benefit. Of course, they were refused religious burial and a place at the cemetery. In the Middle Ages, perhaps also because of the spread of this phenomenon, an unprecedented ruthlessness towards suicide was achieved. The corpses of the subjects were hung by their feet, a hand was cut off, burned or thrown in the garbage dump.

During the Enlightenment, even if the tones softened thanks to David Hume’s criticism, the process was activated that saw suicide considered a crime and a threat to society as a whole. In fact, in line with the thoughts of the time, suicide is increasingly seen as a fact concerning individuals, their natural psychologies and their particular social context, rather than as an issue between the Devil and the sinful individual.

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DorĂŠ, G. (1892). The Inferno Canto 13

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Although in the 19th century, three important factors are introduced, changing the view of suicide and suggesting that it is caused by impersonal social or psychological forces rather than the actions of individuals, It was at the beginning of the 20th century, with the incorporation of psychiatry within the State, that the intimate and private gesture of the suicidal subject was seen as a threat to society as a whole.

3.

M. Brouc (1936). Considerations sur les suicides de notre epoque”, annales d’hygiene publique et de medecine legal

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“The damage that suicide causes to society does not only consist of the number of men who commit suicide but of the contagious discouragement it spreads; the lack of faith in everything that l, in the god of their religion, in man, in society... suicide... like typhus, weakens the strength and determination of those who breathe in the air”. [3]

The emergence of psychiatry as an autonomous science

The creation of a script typical of romanticism for idealized suicides through novels (Rousseau, Goethe and Flaubert)

The development of sociology that begins to study the phenomenon and identifies it as a consequence of social factors (Durkheim and Laplace)

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The construction of suicide as a contagious disease, fatal for some but - more importantly - demoralizing for the population at large, has taken place mainly through two methods.

The material obstruction of suicidal acts in public space and, on the other, by silencing any discussion of suicide in the media.

Journalists are generally encouraged to stay away from suicide cases. These are exceptional circumstances, where suicide is considered particularly relevant, the advice is not to include images or details of the method used.

However, there are two answers to this forced silence. The first is an ideal construction of suicide sites. Places, within the modern city built for the administration of life, which is built-in peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s memory - not by architects but by the repetition of the ritual of suicide. Paradoxically like the same act that sanctioned the birth of space, the ritual.

On the other hand, art and its denunciation of how the practice of suicide makes visible and materializes the mechanisms through which the gesture that places limits on the ability of the biopower to impose life and hide death. Thus, feeding the debate access to the normative apparatus that captures bodies through technologies that regulate life and private rights over oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own destiny.

In order to be able to analyse with accuracy and discuss the following research with its problem and data, requires to set a common definition for suicide behaviours (SBs).

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Manet, E. (1887). Le SuicidĂŠ

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Ceramics of Darkness, Ettore Sottssas

Torre Para Suicidas (1984), by the artist Isidoro Valcarcel Medina

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The House of the Suicide (1979-83), by the arÂŹchitect John Hejduk

Jan Ader, Last work

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D ATA A N D D E F I N I T I O N S The idea of death nowadays

Suicide A fatal self-injurious act with some evidence of intent to die

Suicide attempt (SA) A potentially selfinjurious behaviour associated with at least some intent to die

Active suicidal ideation (SI) Thoughts about taking action to end oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life, including: identifying a method, having a plan, and/or having intent to act

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PSYCHIATRY Science - body

Psychiatric disorder

Psychosi Delusions and Allucinations

Bipolar disorder Schizophrenia PTSD Post traumatic stress disorder

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PSYCOLOGY Mnd

Psychological disorder

Neurosis Cronic distress

Anxiety disordr Obsessive-compulsive disorder Hysteria

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Therefore, the thesis follows the definition given by the Columbia Classification Algorithm of Suicide Assessment which has contributed to standardizing the nomenclature.

“SB exists on a spectrum of severity, on the basis of family studies showing the “progression” from less to more severe forms of suicidal ideation (SI) and behaviour, and from family and biological studies showing the overlap between attempted and completed suicide.” [4] It is very important to say for further considerations and possible design strategy that a time frame patter for Suicide Attempts has been recognized. In fact, for the research International comparisons based on the WHO World Mental Health Survey (2001–2007) data (n=108,705) indicate that the average twelve-month prevalence estimates are 2·0% and 2·1% for ideation, and 0·3% and 0·4% for attempts in developed and developing countries, respectively. Whereas, reports for ideation and attempts were 9·2% and 2·7%, respectively (n=84,850). However, it is also true that the rates of SI and SB vary noticeably between countries.

The patter found shows how Individuals who report SI within the previous 12 months have significantly higher 12-month prevalence rates of SAs (15·1% in developed and 20·2% in developing countries), and suicidal planning further increases risk.

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Therefore, the Studies conducted highlights that within 12 months, approximately one-third of adolescent suicide ideators will go on to attempt suicide, and suicide attempters presenting to an emergency department have 12-month risks of suicide and of repeated SA of 1¡6% and 16¡3%, respectively.

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AT T E M P T S - N O N F ATA L S U I C I D E - D E AT H

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W H AT I S I T A B O U T ?

Causes - Riscks - Factors

“While the link between suicide and mental disorders (in particular, depression and alcohol use disorders) is well established, many suicides happen impulsively in moments of crisis. Further risk factors include the experience of loss, loneliness, discrimination, a relationship break-up, financial problems, chronic pain and illness, violence, abuse, and conflict or other humanitarian emergencies.

The strongest risk factor for suicide is a previous suicide attempt.” [1] In the last century, experts have been recognized more and more the influence contributions of both social and individual factors to understanding suicide risk. Studies made have shown a progressive relationship between suicide risks and the interaction among predisposing and precipitating factors, with the result of various models that explain self-harm risks and factors.

Overall, “suicide is etiologically heterogeneous, with significant variability in the strengths and patterns of association of risk factors across gender, age, culture, geographic location, and personal history.” [2]

1.

WHO. (n.d.). Suicide Prevention.

2.

Prof. G. Turecki and Prof. David A. Brent (2015, June 15)

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S O C IAL FACTO R S

Economic crises resulting in unemployment and decreased personal income.

Media reporting suicide

Families with one member that have died by suicide.

(Family concordance for SB)

“Family concordance for SB is not attributable to imitation because adoption studies show concordance between biological, but not adoptive relatives Twin and adoption studies indicate that genetic factors account for part of the familial transmission of SB, with estimates of heritability between 30–50%”

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“when details of a method are provided, if the decedent was a celebrity, and if the suicide was romanticized rather than reported in association with mental illness and the adverse consequences of the suicide on survivors.”

Sexual orientation

Analysis of registry-based data suggests that individuals with a history of same-sex relationships have a 3â&#x20AC;&#x201C;4 fold greater risk of dying by suicide, with a disproportionately greater risk for men than for women, and belonging to a sexual minority is universally linked with increased rates of SAs irrespective of gender.

Exposure to ELA (early-life adversity), generally defined as parental neglect, childhood physical, sexual or emotional abuse

ELA may induce long-term effects through epigenetic changes in specific gene pathways. Individuals who have experienced ELA often exhibit a hyperactive HPA axis and an increased stress response.

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D E V E LO P M E N TA L O R M E D I AT I N G R I S K F A C T O R S

Psychopathology

Approximately 90% of individuals who die by suicide had an identifiable psychiatric disorder prior to death.

Physical illnesses

Respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) and asthma (OR=1·5–2·06), cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease and stroke (OR=1·53–1·54), degenerative diseases such as osteoporosis and multiple sclerosis (OR=2·33–2·54); gender differences present, with increased risk for women.

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Sleep disturbances and insomnia

Increased risk of SI or SBs may be independent of depression; may be mediated by increased impulsivity, negative cognitive bias, and reward-seeking

Alcohol and substance abuse

Abuse of substances is more salient for SB in adolescents and young adults, while harm avoidance and mood disorders are increasingly present with increasing age.

Depression and anxiety

Make strong contributions to SB across the lifespan, both retrospective and prospective contribute to interpersonal conflict, impulsive aggression, conduct disorder, antisocial behaviour.

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3.

Prof. G. Turecki and Prof. David A. Brent (2015, June 15)

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Not every individual with a psychiatric illness die by suicide, nevertheless, SBs patients are more likely to be linked to psychiatric illnesses than others. Great depressive episodes, related to serious depressive disorder or bipolar disorder, account for at least half of suicide deaths Schizophrenia is also a major cause of SBs in Adults individual. As well as, other psychotic disorders are also at heightened risk, with main clinical predictors of suicide including the presence of depressive symptoms, young age, male gender, education, positive symptoms, and illness insight.

Multiple other factors are commonly present among suicides and may exacerbate underlying risk or interact with depression to increase the risk of engaging in SBs, such as alcohol and drug-related disorders. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Suicides frequently have histories of more than one disorder, and evidence suggests that in individuals with psychiatric illnesses such as depression, which associates with SI, comorbidity with disorders characterized by severe anxiety/agitation or poor impulse control predicts SB.â&#x20AC;? [3]

S U I C I D E B E HAVI O U R P R O C E SS

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CAS E STU D I E S Contemporary situation

T O D AY ’ S

ISSUE OF SUICIDE AND E UTHANAS IA I S B OTH A M O R A L A N D A S P AT I A L Q U E S T I O N

The WHO World Health Assembly raises the issue of the increased number of suicides, pointing the attention also to the fact that is a phenomenon with a hidden large based. Its aim was to increase the awareness of the public health significance of suicide and suicide attempts and to highlight the importance of suicide prevention.

By consequence, different countries have taken measurement by designing law raised also from the question of civil rights, developing comprehensive suicide prevention strategies in a multisectoral approach. Certainly, the situation is significantly varying from one society to the other accordingly to the cultural background.

However, it appears not to be enough since the cause of SB are still rocketing. For example, depression is a common illness worldwide, with more than 300 million people affected.

This illness, is different from usual mood fluctuations, challenging the individual in all the aspect of the everyday life. Besides causing great suffer, may also become a serious health condition and finally leading to suicide.

“Although there are known, effective treatments for Suicide behaviours, fewer than half of those affected in the world (in many countries, fewer than 10%) receive such treatments.

Barriers to effective care include a lack of resources, lack of trained health-care providers, and social stigma associated with mental disorders and the theme of death.” [1] Another limit to effective tackling of the problem is inaccurate assessment. In countries of all income levels, people who have suicide attitude are often not correctly

1.

WHO. (n.d.). Suicide Prevention.

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checked and diagnosed, likewise many individuals are misdiagnosed and prescribed antidepressants without receiving an active treatment.

The discussion on this theme has also shown another contemporary phenomenon which is eventually really present nowadays in our society.

Euthanasia, from the Greek word literally means good death. It is to procure intentionally and in its interest the death of an individual whose quality of life is permanently compromised by an illness, impairment or psychological condition.

Inevitably, the right to decide whether is possible to determine one’s end, has risen among individuals, country and social groups an active debate. This very old ontological question has been introduced again by the English philosopher Francis Bacon in its essay “Of the Proficence and Avancement of Learning” in 1605 where he was inviting doctors not to leave untreated the terminal ill patient but instead helping him not to suffer. Overall, he was sustaining that the doctor’s aim was to relieve pain in the patient ding rather than ending his life.

In modern times, like for the word suicide there has been a shift in meaning. In fact, from the XIX century the word has been used to indicate a medical action of ending the life of a suffering patient emerging the concept of consent murder which have raised even more the tone on the discussion.

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C U R R E N T E U R O P E A N J U R I D I C A L A N D L E G A L S I T U AT I O N

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Eventually, it is a complicate issue that involves legal, moral and religious discourses, and often it is still treated as a taboo, but yet, it cannot be ignored.

Together with the theme of suicide, it is what today revolve around the idea of death in present societies.

Therefore, to propose an answer it is necessary to look at concrete examples that the discussion have produced.

In fact, in countries where the debate is open and more tolerant, administrations, governments or associations have responded to the issue not only with social or juridical measurements but also with proper places.

These cases are various but for having a clear analysis two main examples have been selected: Dignitas and the Maggie centre.

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Brown , C. (1886). Bombay, Temple of Silence

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MEGGIE CENTRES

Meggie center is a network of charity led facilities in the UK that aim to help people who have been diagnosed with cancer.

They are independent facilities within existing hospitals and they offer daycare, public and private meetings with doctors, nurses and volunteers. The institution aims to provide support to the patients and members of the family that are going through the fight of illness. It is not a day hospital, so it does not provide any facility that requires hospitalization. Therefore, they are not meant to substitute the treatment facilities because they provide a different kind of supper. The support so-called â&#x20AC;&#x153;treatment of painâ&#x20AC;?.

The name is given in memory of Maggie Keswick Jencks, the deceased wife of Charles Jencks, Architecture critique.

At her loss, caused by cancer, Jencks founded the Maggie Centre foundation and intitled few important architectural figures to design proper places for the facilities.

Nowadays, the centers are various and their signs are from the most known architects in the building environment.

Eventually, their affiliation remarks significantly their physical appearance standing out evidently and seeking visibility.

However, rather than a formal solution what is interesting to analyze is the organization of the space, the relation between common and intimate space and the presence of a framed nature.

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The plans are organized by the cores which host the services and technical room. The solid volumes divide and separate, creating a visible hierarchy mainly two different types of space; communal and individual.

From the plan it is also visible that nature is always integrated into the layout, creating a relationship that assumes different gradients.

CORE

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N.Foster &Partners. Maggie Centre

Snhoetta. Maggie Centre

R-Koohlaas OMA. Maggie Centre

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D I G N I TA S

Dignitas is a Swiss organization that assisted already more than 2000 people to die. Was founded by Ludwig Minelli a swiss lawyer, specialist in human rights.

The vision of the doctor Minelli, as he claims, goes beyond helping terminally ill patients to reduce their inevitably painful end, but anyone who wants to without leaving aside all the moral judgment. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What moral? Which moral? Catholic? Muslim? Buddhist? We are just working off the atheist basis of self-determination,â&#x20AC;? We are just working off the atheist basis of self-determination.â&#x20AC;?

L. Manelli

Beneath Dignitas and his practice, there are three strongholds. The first one is the principle that once you give someone the freedom to express himself on suicide matter, you reduce the desire to accomplish it. So, talking and sharing help to overcome the boundaries of the taboo.

Second, even just by giving a recognized and supported options, gives at who is suffering a lot of relief. This is because they achieve the awareness that their future no longer is linked just on the decision between enduring their suffering or attempting a high risk of suicide on their own. Thirdly, Manelli sustains that logically, assisting the serious action of self-killing reduces significantly the grate number of disastrously failed suicides. For example, many attempted suicides by overdosing have resulted instead in extremely bed liver functioning conditions. Likewise, other method of suicide, such as jumping for a building, running under a train or using guns also tend not to be very effective.

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These failed suicide attempts, beside the irrevocable damage on the person life and the aggravation of his/her condition, put a heavy burden on a nation’s health service.

Consequently, the data collected internally by the association, show that 80% of the people that receive the greenlight – last phase of the process for the assisted procedure – renounce to go all the way.

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Gentleman, A. (2009, November 18). Inside the Dignitas house. The Gardian

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“The vast majority of people who visit Dignitas are the terminally ill or those with an incurable, progressive disease. Usually, if the person has terminal cancer, motor neuron disease or multiple sclerosis and they are telling us ‘I don’t like to live some weeks or months until the terrible end, then it is quite clear and we have no difficulty in saying yes. Then there are those people who are just tired of life. With life expectancy growing and medical sophistication improving, people are increasingly worried about whether they will be “condemned to linger on”, Minelli says, “forced to end their lives in an institution. Our members say: with our pets, when they are old and in pain, we help them.

Why am I not entitled to go to the vet? Why haven’t I such an opportunity? We hear this often.” [1]

HOW DOES IT WORK?

You need to become a member of Dignitas. pay an annual fee of 80 Swiss francs

When you are ready to die, you need to send in copies of your medical records, a letter explaining why things have become intolerable and £1,860.

Dignitas's affiliated doctors consider your case on the basis of the medical history

then a "green light" is given to the member, and they can contact staff at the Dignitas headquarters, who will schedule a date

the individual must pay £620 for two appointments with the doctor

further £1,860 to pay for two Dignitas staff members to organise and witness the death

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The place where DIGNITAS could have practiced its service has not been easy to find. Nonetheless, it has often received quite critiques regarding its location and its surrounding.

At first, when the association started, an apartment in a residential building was used as doctors ambulatory.

However, many complaints were coming from the neighbors due to the constant presence of undertakers.

Consequently, Manelliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s group moved in the suburbs in a purely residential area before being shut down.

Finally. A free-standing and simple house has been bought in an industrial area of Zurich.

However, people, especially relatives, felt horrified by the surroundings.

The house in the industrial zone is in the shadows of a vast grey machine-components factory; to the left, there are factories, to the right there are factories, in front, there is a football pitch. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not that the place is exactly charmless, it is just a bit peculiar. To enter, guests make their way across wooden decking over a large goldfish pond (which does have a tinkling water feature).

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Gentleman, A. (2009, November 18). Inside the Dignitas house. The Gardian

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The first stage happens at a round table, covered with a yellow tablecloth, where the two Dignitas companions sit with family members and the individual who is about to die to discuss the procedure. At this stage, a lot of documents must be signed setting out the desire to die. It is up to the members to decide when they are ready to take an antivomiting drug to prepare the stomach, and half an hour later, the lethal drug [â&#x20AC;Ś] If someone wants to talk about their life for six hours, we will never hurry them. Minelli says; The music, all the details, are their choice. We are servants of their desire for self-determination.â&#x20AC;? [2]

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When the patient is ready, is invited to laydown because this position is more suitable for the procedure. A video at this point has been installed to monitoring the service.

Minelli and his colleagues repeatedly question whether the patient really wants to go all the way.

The white powder (15g) is mix with water and prepared for being drunk. Bucher, the doctor in charge, advises people to say what they would like to say, their final words.

Because after there is not much time â&#x20AC;&#x201C; usually just between one to three minutes before they sleep, fall into a coma and then die. The act of voluntarily drinking the drug, mixed with 60ml of water. For those unable to lift the glass to their lips, there is a machine that will administer it, once they press a button.

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H O U S E O F R I T U A LS From Theory to Practice

CAN S PAC E BE AN E F F E CTIVE TO O L TO T R E AT S U I C I DAL B E HAVI O U R S AND S U I C I D E AT T E M P T S ?

CAN S PAC E AF F E CT H U MAN B E HAVI O U R E M OTI O NAL S P H E R E AND BUILT RELATIONSHIP?

S T R AT E G Y Research obser vations

As the research as demonstrated in the previous chapters, although death has been hidden from our public realm, is still affecting our daily life inevitably.

Today the problem of Suicide Behavior and Attempted suicide is more than ever a spatial and moral question that needs to be re-think and re-interpreted.

Therefore, through the â&#x20AC;&#x153;House of ritualsâ&#x20AC;?, the spatial strategy attempts to elaborate a contemporary solution to those issues related to the terrible facts of suicide behaviors and suicide attempts.

The strategy starts from the observation of the data previously analyzed and the elements acquainted in the first book, generating a possible solution that could be assembled in various combinations accordingly to the different conditions.

A toolbox of spaces that based its essence in the primary sensorial experience, aiming to awake again a sleeping consciousness. An awareness that it is possible to perceive in primordial space like spiritual sits, caves or in James Turrell skyspaces.

The outside cosmo is being separated from our being. The alternative or the way out the answer may be to remember that we are natural being in ourselves. You get a feeling of that if we make use of it. The step is to be aware of being on nature yourself so have a feeling from inside. Our body is the only place in the world where you feel what is being an organism from insiede and not observing it as something out there. Form this point of departure you may even develop an alternative awareness.

Rozmawiali. (2014, August 19).

INTERVIEW: Gernot BĂśhme

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1.

Pallasma, J. (1994).

The Eyes of the Skin

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House of rituals, in order to demonstrate the design strategy, will present the re-design of one “clinic” model in Switzerland: the new prevention for suicide attempts Facility.

The chosen site is located in the Upper Engadin Valley, surrounded by nature, close to the sky as well as not distant form major metropolitan area.

The architectural design is a possible combination of the toolbox designed that can host for a tropical year about 16 patients belonging to two different types: terminally ill and suicide behavior, generating a building that boost relationships and sensorial experiences.

“It is a project that is confronted with the questions of human existance in space and time, trying to express and relates man’s being in the world. [1]

[re] design the clinical space

[re] connect people through space with the sphere of the here and now [re] discover the importance of primary experiences and daily routine

[re] establish human relationship and social interaction

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PALI M PS E STS Strateg y definition

The project consists of a â&#x20AC;&#x153;House of Ritualsâ&#x20AC;?, projected into a hypothetical future where the right on one individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life is recognized and people are free to decide on their own destiny while given a valid alternative or at least a choice.

It is a place that brings together two different groups of people, with different characteristics and perhaps opposing will, but who share the same destiny, death.

It is an architecture that wants to strip itself from this word, referring only to spaces and volumes that accommodate sixteen people in total, eight individuals with suicidal behaviors and eight terminally ill.

The basic objective is that through space, patients can live a sensory experience that directly can reconstruct the plasticity of the perceptual system which has been fragmented by the sense of detachment and alienation given by contemporary life and cities. Thus, providing the ground for perception and trying to reconnect the individual with the primary experiences of everyday life.

The patients, will live life in the clinic for twelve months expanding their perception through space and nature by starting a journey, a pilgrimage of self-discover and relations.

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MAN I F E STO

In 20[â&#x20AC;Ś], the argument on the right to decide whether is possible to end the personal existence has been discussed with the outcome of total legalization.

Communities are now facing the question of how to ensure that this possibility is not taken as an alternative to life and how to settle the best condition to treat the patient with alternative solutions rather than only pharmaceutic.

As a consequence, a new idea of treatment, with two main counter corners was developed.

A therapy that gathers two different groups of people, with different characteristics and perhaps opposite willing, that however share the same outcome, death. These two types of patients, although having very diverse needs, will live together in special places that have been erected throughout the world.

A new type of clinic: â&#x20AC;&#x153;House of Ritualsâ&#x20AC;?, where the patient with suicidal behaviors will live and experience life for a tropical year expanding his perception through space and nature and entering in contact sporadically with the other type of patient that in turn is there because of his fatal illness.

In this cosmos, Architecture has spontaneously returned to its primitive meaning. A place that crystallized from rituals and signs the presence of mankind on earth. The ground on which these places are erected, as for the primitive people that established relationship with it by marking the territory, became a specific landscape, where the elements are embodied.

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R I T U A LS Cr ystallization of primar y activities

As we seen from the philosopher Mircea Eliade studies there was once a deep link between man and space and that the act of building came from directly rituals. To Built was regarded as an act enshrining the limit between the sacred and profane; “act of establishment of a world in the midst of primeval nature”. [1] At the origin of all human societies the sacred was always present, in every gesture of the day. these gestures were a responsible activity that wants to achieve a precise purpose.

1.

Tuan, Y. (1977). Space and Place: The percsective of Experience.

Hence the archaic ideal that an object or act becomes real only to the extent that it imitates or repeats an archetype.

The moment we bring something back to consciousness, it becomes real. Otherwise, it’s in indistinct chaos.

“If we look at the floor of the room until two minutes ago it was in the indistinct in the unconscious, at the moment when it is remembered, it is brought back to consciousness and so the primitive ontological conception understood this aspect, it influenced precisely the way of perceiving reality.” [2]

2.

Coslo , M. (n.d.). Mircea Eliade la morte. augier

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In our case, it is important to underline the value given to these primary actions which not only gave meaning to everyday life but also marked time and space.

However, it is true that today society has lost its roots and its attachment to the rites of life, as well as to the rites of death. This detachment, has consequently had direct repercussions on individuals.

Daily actions have lost their importance and meaning, people run here and there, eating from a screen or while they work. It can be seen that there is no longer any distinction between the different parts of the day and the various human activities.

Everything can be done more quickly and efficiently, but where is the meaning?

This alienation seems to be a heavy burden that the individual has to carry every day, increasing the condition of depression.

In fact, studies have shown that people with suicidal behavior commonly experience a loss of interest in daily activities. Therefore, by losing the sense of what they are doing, depression and anxiety arise.

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Aris, C. M. (1994). Variazioni d’Identità

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Sini, C. (2006). Il segreto di Alice

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The project, through rituals, aims to be a scenery for humans.

These daily activities, “have a thick sediment of slowly filtered experiences, a link with attitudes and ways of life which we carry deeply rooted in ourselves” [3] and that may fill the gap left by the stressed contemporary life in people with suicide behaviors.

The project bases its roots in rituals of living for people that are facing or want to face death.

By giving rhythm and meaning to everyday action the patient might find again the sense of things and its presence while for the other type of patient (Terminally ill) might be an appropriate way to reduce the suffering of everyday life and fully enjoy the last moments.

As Carlo Sini notes, “the words ‘ritual’, ‘art’ and ‘rhythm’ come from the common root ‘rt’. Rite, then, is what makes action valid, legitimate and effective, by sharing it rhythmic. So, rite is a rhythmic art, that is, something that is not inert: “rite is a dance, inert is what does not dance” And those who close their existential horizons in a symptom, in an inflexible internal order where there is no exchange between the various parts, do not dance.

The rite has the function of conferring value to the acts (as in the case of marriage, it celebrates the passages of state of existence): its opposite is the term “irritated”, that which has no value. [4]

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P U R I F I C AT I O N OF TH E B O DY

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Like for archaic cultures, these rituals have defined marks and demarcations in the territory. These signs appear from afar as stones that come directly out of the mountain or boulders detached and taken further down the valley by an ancient glacier or as a defensive system leftover from ancient times. In winter the snow covers them, in summer the vegetation grows and this advancing and retreating will leave its marks in time.

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SPECIFIC LANDSCAPE Traces and marks that blend into the territory

N AT U R A L AT M O S P H E R E S Exploring the different habitats in dif ferent seasons

The solidification of objects in the landscape leaves traces.

These marks become a sing of memory and identification with which humans recognize the place. What was before a generic landscape becomes now a specific landscape.

The elements of the powerful nature in the alpine region are being mediated by the space and its openings. Light, air, and the odor of the vegetation are sips like a wine.

“House of rituals” aims to [re]establish the interaction between humans, space and nature.

In this regard, nature is a reality that expresses man cosmology. It is a space that surrounds us but we cannot grasp entirely until it does not appear evidently. it is what the ancient people used to do naturally and it is what perhaps James Turrell has understood; framing portion of nature, or in his case the sky, amplifies the perception of it, awaking as consequence another type of consciousness.

“House of Rituals” make uses of the same principle of borrowing a piece of nature, designing an integral place: a place to eat to dress to sleep and to gather. A place of expression where architecture and landscape encompass the lives of people.

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To do so, it was necessary to analyze the place, extracting and distilling its essences to be able to use it wisely.

Therefore, the only way was to go to the discovery of the valley myself. Three different trips were necessary to grasp an overall, although not complete, essence of the place.

One in summer, one in spring and the last one in the middle of the winter.

Inevitably, all of the three voyages added and gave me different information and feelings.

The two journeys in the warm months where quite similar even though in May the snow was still present in the high picks and here and there.

Life was just starting again, and all around there was a strong energy and feeling of life.

On the contrary of August, the water was abundant and the sound produces by the current flowing down the valley through the stones was singing all around.

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The appearance in winter is completely different. The white snow starts falling at the beginning of November and gradually covers everything indistinctively; times stops.

The white coat creates a screen that melts with the sky in cloudy days, dissolving every possible reference; just some rocks and threes pops out from the milky liquid.

It seems to be among the clouds among skyspaces.

Even though the valley has high altitudes, nature is florescent and rich. In fact, the region belongs to the National Swiss Park which is famous for its biodiversity.

The territory is can be divided into three main habitats; the Urban settlement, the alpine grassland, the forest, and the high mountain.

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Information regarding the habitats retrived directly from: Parco Nazionale Svizzero. (n.d.). https://www.nationalpark.ch/ it/?changelang

The Alpine area between 2100 and 2500 m offers plants and animals a varied environment.

Both plants that prefer sites at lower altitudes and ArcticAlpine species that prefer the high mountains live on the Alpine meadows. More precisely, depending on the terrain, the local climate, the exposure, and the altitude, different mixtures of species are formed, which we call plant communities.

The mountain forest is an habitat for plants and animals, protects against washes, and acts as a green lung. The typical forests of the region consist of spruce, larch, Swiss stone pine, or mountain pine. In the past, many forests were repeatedly completely deforested, and today the pioneer forests of mountain pines dominate the landscape.

At first glance, this high mountain landscape seems like a desolate place, looking better you will discover a heap of exciting phenomena. This meager biotope, dominated by weather conditions and erosion, demands maximum adaptability from animals and plants. Stones characterize this landscape between flowering meadows and the highest mountain peaks. Rocky peaks rise to the sky and huge macerated areas extend down into the valley.

Erosion leaves its clearest imprint on the high mountains.

Here the sparse vegetation can no longer hold back the ground. Large boulders are freed from the explosive force of the frozen water and fall into the valley forming huge macerated areas.

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Urban settelment

High mountain

Mixed alpine woods

Alpine grasslands

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ADDITIONS - HUMANS SETTLEMENT

F O R E S T - N AT U R A L S P A C E

W AT E R - N AT U R A L M A R K S

T E R R A C E S - A N T R O P O LO G I A C A L T R A C E S

S H A P E - N AT U R A L T O P O G R A P H Y

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B U I L D I N G R E L AT I O N S H I P S A house shaped by Rituals, relationships and atmospheres

R E L AT I O N S H I P B E T W E E N P AT I E N T S A N D S P A C E Proxemic distances

â&#x20AC;&#x153;House of Ritualsâ&#x20AC;? wants not only to awake in patients their consciousness again through space but also to re-establish relationships and human connections. In fact, people with Suicide Behaviors often experience margination and isolation from the rest of society, while People diagnosed with a deadly disease experience in the last part of their life pain and isolation.

This sort of social alienation, as it has been analyzed with the previous chapters, is caused by various issues.

Often, while depression and anxiety are rising, the will to be involved in social activities plumbs. Whereas, sadly it is true that people with mental issues or physical conditions are being discriminated and margined.

Consequently, the strategy proposed tries to answer and sew the fracture between people through spaces that ensure communal activities, likewise intimate one.

The project bases its structures on gradients of interactions that are allowed in a sense by the architectural form.

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C A N S P A C E I M P R O V E R E L AT I O N S H I P S ?

One point of the strategy relies on the study made by Edward Hall on what consequently he defined in his book “The Hidden Dimension” the Proxemic distance.

In the book, Hall observes the significance of personal and social space and how individuals, perceive them, theorizing the observation related to the use of space as a specific cultural pattern.

1.

Hall, T. E. (1988). The hidden dimension

“Man’s sense of space is a synthesis of many sensory inputs: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, and thermal. Not only does each of these constitute a complex system as, for example, the dozen different ways of experiencing depth visually.

We learn from the study of culture that the patterning of perceptual worlds is a function not only of culture but of relationship, activity, and emotion.

The study of culture in the proxemic sense is, therefore, the study of people’s use of their sensory apparatus in different emotional states during different activities.” [1] The hypothesis behind the proxemic classification system sees like a human, likewise other animals, to exhibit behavior that can be call territoriality. The use of the senses is what determines the difference between one space or the distance and another. As a result of his studies, he distinguished four principal categories of relationship;

I N T I M AT E - P R S O N A L - S O C I A L - P U B L I C

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PROXEMIC DISTANCES

PROXEMIC DISTANCES

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Hall, T. E. (1988). The hidden dimension

Important to highlight it is the observation made on the inability of some individuals to develop the public phase of their personality and as a consequence they are unable to fit in public space. Likewise, underlined by many psychiatrist, other individuals have problems with the intimate and personal areas.

“The world’s populations are crowding into cities, and builders and speculators are packing people into vertical filing boxes— both offices and dwellings. If one looks at human beings in the way that the early slave traders did, conceiving of their space requirements simply in terms of the limits of the body, one pays very little attention to the effects of crowding. If, however, one sees man surrounded by a series of invisible bubbles which have measurable dimensions, architecture can be seen in a new light.” [2] Hall in this regard, makes a significant example by comparing the link between cancer and smoking to illness, crime, and crowding.

“House of Rituals” makes use of the latter studies to build a sequence of spaces where human activities can take place with a gradient of social interaction and intimacy. Here, patients are free to choose themselves the type of human contact they want to have accordingly to their emotion and mood.

With the scheme visible on the right, it is possible to understand the organization of the series of spaces of the area of the “Living” which lies further down the valley where the habitat is more suited to human life.

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The organization into different spaces, where different activity can take place and consequently establishing various grade of social interactions, determines the interface of the patients with daily visitors and with the staff working in the structure.

Following the same latter principle of proxemic distance, the diagram on the left explain the relationship between these three types of user within the same space and in the overall layout.

In the bigger “circle”; the public, there are sixteen patient (dots) which are being supervised by at least five members of the stuff. They live the same space but do not interfere in the interaction between hosts and their relative visitors.

The number of individuals embodied with the dark grey line, reduces in number gradually, going from public to intimate where just one dot remains. By the decrease of the number of patients in each space also the amount of supervisor reduce parallelly.

Whereas, the visitors are invited to not disturb the individuals hosted in the “House of Rituals” into their more intimate space.

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A SERIES OF CHAMBERS Human and Sapce

W H AT I S T H E E X P E R I E N C E O F TRAVE LI N G TH R O U G H TH E S E S PAC E S? A R E T H E Y C O N C E I V E D A S A ‘J O U R N E Y ’ O R R AT H E R A S I S O L AT E D M O M E N T S ?

O N B E HALF O F S PAC E A voyage in the constellation of atmospheric places

The project, from the large scale of the landscape to each layout of the individual space, is intended as a path of introspection and self-discovery. This pilgrimage of meditation and soul-searching defines in the landscape architectural stepping stones that reduce their complexity in favor of a purity going up to the forest and closing the distance with the celestial vault.

“This movement suggest a moment of active encounter where the stepping stones set in the land images and imprints of footsteps, framing behaviors and movements”. [1] This journey into the landscape allows the visitors with physical ability to lived uniquely the three habitats of the context.

1.

Pallasma, J. (1994). The Eyes of the Skin.

“House of Rituals” prompts movement and the action of discovery. The spaces are conceived in a way to allow various human activities seeking the patient dynamic.

Yet, the experience is both: a journey and isolated moments at the same time. Each space is unlike, each of them has its’ own atmosphere. Nonetheless, the relationships between them are not less important. The motion between spaces is inevitable and it is different from exploring each space; the connection of spaces is a crucial part of the scenario as well as each room itself.

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Sergio Crotti, Figure architettoniche: soglia, Unicolpli 2000

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The space of transition is intended as a threshold. It is a limit that does not end but instead is something from which another entity begins.

Accordingly to Sergio Crotti; an Italian architecture historian, the threshold “It is the disputed interval between opposing fronts; it corresponds to both, but neither of them coincides.”

Moreover, it reveals the dynamic asset between the different spaces. the project “House of Rituals” emphasize the liminal experience of passing difference place by the use of this tool. The limit constitutes the conceptual idea of entering and exiting and the contact line of two entities. in the overall project layout, the threshold assumes various solid solutions, establishing different perception thanks to the game of light and shadow, and from the dilatation of space in both cartesian axes.

In the House of Rituals these passages measure and distinct the temporal cyclicality of recurring seasons in the patient social life within the stabilized space.

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THRESHOLD

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CHAMBERS The interal dicotomy

During the design, it has been avoided to use the words room, architecture and functions bust instead space and activities; a space to gather, a space to rest, a space to wash, a space to read, and a space eat.

The project therefore consists of a series of chambers or spaces where the human activity take place.

“Space built a scenario where human activities can take place: this is its usefulness in a broad sense. The term function, referring to more particular and contingent aspects of usefulness, makes it difficult to understand an architecture capable of integrating universality of its form as many uses as possible. Accordingly, to Hegel and his observation on the Gothic Cathedral, the sense of matter does not end with the fulfilment of a function, but incorporates it and surpasses it, acquiring its own autonomy.” [1]

1.

Aris, C. M. (1994). Variazioni d’Identità

Therefore, it is through the shape of the matter that is possible to respond to the legitimate demands that utility presents.

Thereby, House of rituals is intended as a process able to structure the human activity, establishing general rules that belong to the space shape.

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The exterior shape is dictated by the topography of the place.

As for the ancient spiritual sits and place of worship, the appearance of the building is in direct dialogue with the place. In fact, the geographical conditions are shaping the outer skin of the project which blends into the landscape, reminding natural stones or ancient fortifications left by the ancestors.

The siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s natural traces and the anthropological marks establish a dialogue with the project which lay on the terrace modeled onto the mountain slope.

Time and seasons are active characters in this story, both for the patients and the structure which hosts them.

Eventually, the many tropical years of passage of seasons; rain, sun, wind, and snow, will leave marks on the outer skin on the project, characterizing its essence as an object built-in continuity with the landscape. Protected, the patients will be the observer of this flow of time and changes, reminding them that they are part of the movement of the cosmos.

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Landscape trace. Image of the author.

(2020) Engadin, Svitzerland

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The space inside of these stones belongs to another dimension. As for the Foucault’s Heterotopias and the Turrellian Skyspaces, the voids of House of Rituals are places conceived as getaways. The physical shapes of the liminal boundaries appear as it was carved out from the vivid rock by the constant erosion of the water or by the subtraction of matter done by the work of primitive people.

They are spaces that welcome rituals but as well as they come from rituals.

1.

Aris, C. M. (1994). Variazioni d’Identità

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“Each ritual refers to a form: the operation through which the activity acquires a stable form constitutes architecture.

Hence the deep bond that unites the ritual, not only in traditional cultures, where the organization of space is a transparent reflection of a ritual referred to the cosmological order but also in the modern world where architecture has taken its ancient sacredness, while man’s attentions remain tied to their anthropological roots […] One can understand the rite as a point of union and tangency between the world of form and that of activity: the only point from which architecture can be born. From this point of view, it would be little more than the rite allows, a simple scenario prepared for human representations.” [1]

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The projects consist of four main spaces that are mirrored for the two groups. One of these chambers is shared by all the patients of the house where they can meet occasionally.

The entrance and the main space are called “Womb” since it reflects the deepness and atmosphere of an internal vase.

This is the main chamber where the administration and the main facilities are. It is a public space, a place to gather where, most importantly, the journey of the person starts.

Following the layout project, there is the so-called “Fireplace”. Here, the group is divided from the other, yet, it still consists of social space. In fact, the name brings inevitably into mind the communal activities that revolve around the fire.

Going into the bowels of the mountain, the patients of one’s group are invited to split before reaching the next chamber; “Well”. The name derives from its shape as well as from its idea of receptacle. A Place of passage, a space to stay, and where the individual can have an intimate conversation.

The arrival is “The Cave”, a place of solitude and complete intimacy. Is the chamber of the monk, it is the niche of the patient. Here, the individual takes possession again of the landscape view which has been sip until now.

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WOMB

Public

FIREPLACE

Social

WELL

Personal

CAVE

Intimate

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The space configuration is based on the latter study of proxemic distances and the relation between patients, staff, and visitors. The main idea was to create a possible solution of a toolbox of spaces able to guarantee different gradient o of social interactions and activities, allowing the patients to choose freely according to their mood.

This has led to a sequence of chambers that perhaps may be organized differently accordingly to the geographical conditions of a different environment.

In the right scheme above, it is represented the distributions of people in the chamber. This wants to highlight the different interface between the patients, their visitors, and the staff who is monitoring and taking care.

In the diagram on the right below instead, the circles with different shades and expanding from the grey dots represent the proxemic distances between the body of the person with the other individuals and the physical boundaries.

Patient

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Proxemic distance

P AT I E N T S - V I S I T O R - S TA F F

P R O X E M I C D I S TA N C E S - A R E A S O F M O N I T O R I N G

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WOMB Public space

P U B LI C S PAC E Entrance and main space

The womb is the starting point of the journey. It is where the Patients leave behind the everyday burdens and enter into a voyage which destination is unknown.

This place is essential to daily activities and supports the rest. It is the core of the project from which everything revolves.

It is the place predilect for social activities. Its atmosphere welcomes the social interaction while observing the other person who is living in the space as well.

The entity which allows activities is the void that develops deep down about the entry-level.

This space recalls the many abbey courtyards and church chiostri as well as countless inner square enclosed by houses in which many of the patients perhaps have played in their childhood.

Here, the shape of the material limits allows several communal occupations, yet, without imposing any specific use. This is the power of such space; it can be used freely but with general and communal identity of the community.

This void is where the two groups reunite and it is where the main events occur.

For instance, during its stay, the patient may take part in lessons or conferences, theatricals, and musical performances, as well as, participate in many workshops that encourage social aggregation organized by specialists following the patients.

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WOR KSHOPS AND CONSULTING SESSIONS

PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES

SOCIAL INTERACTION

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PERFORMANCES

CONFERENCES AND GROUP TUTORINGS

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Surrounded by the landscape, the temporary inhabitants are welcomed to enter through a fracture on the ground which continues on the vertical stone surface of the exterior wall. It seems a gap into the ground. An enter of a cave which has might be used by our ancestor as shelter from the rigid weather or as a protection from wild beats.

Once inside, the space opens up revealing the guts of the mountain. The users find themselves in what is the core and the starting point from which they can choose the direction. The counter on their right is the front desk of the administration. Here, the expert staff will guide and support the new host, giving information, and proceeding with the check-in.

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The underground entrance has still a visual connection with the other world with a wide opening that is in dialogue with the massive slope on the other side of the valley. Resting on the soft furniture the patients can take a glimpse of what was surrounding them a few moments ago, before undertaking their voyage in the sequence of spaces.

Leaning from the balustrade the void appears beneath. The free circular space reveals opening pf various shapes that at first glimpse does not reveal their true nature.

Seeing life from above and people all around, it is an invitation to go down and discover the cave.

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THRESHOLD

Climbing the long stairs, the lights coming from the longitudinal skylight invades how is going through the fracture. Above the head, the trees show their sharp picks moved by the high-altitude wind. The blue sky takes place of the ceiling, canceling the distance between the user and the sky.

Going down, the wall on the left resembles the internal flesh of the mountain, telling the temporary inhabitant how they are going deep into the rock.

On the other side, the handrail accompanying the individual to the end of the ramp. It is a smooth shaped carved into the white stucco wall.

Once in the womb the life opens up; activities, interaction, and sociality are all around. Traveling through the dark space that surrounds the void it is possible to observe what is happening in the void. The space that embodied the amorphous double high emptiness is characterized by a different atmosphere; a more introverted space where shadows embrace the visitor. The negative of the void, the opposite of light.

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B

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The light is filtrated by the opening characterized by different shapes. Dilatation or contraction allows different things to happen.

For example; the wider niches are positioned at a specific high that oscillate between forty and sixty centimeters from the grounds, inviting people to sit and rest. The dimension of these determines the number of people that can sit together and rest, talk, play, or watch.

On the other hand, the smaller openings are considerably smaller and are positioned between the eye height; framing occasionally the view, and just below the internal ceiling; illuminating consequently the horizontal surface. The access to the center of the space is trhough the thick edge thanks to high and narrow geometrical fractures that emphasize the passage to another kind of venue.

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NICHES

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Social

Intimate

Light

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THRESHOLD

1.

Pallasma, J. (1994). The Eyes of the Skin.

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The passage to the next space is a long walkway perpendicular to the void. The curvature of the ceiling of the main space extends to all the length but leaving a small fracture before toughing the vertical wall to let the light enter occasionally. The sound of the steps along the walk creates an experience of interiority. Going through the threshold, the eye of the patient reach the view of the two entrances of the fireplaces but is the ear who receive the information of entering in a different space. In fact, as Walter Ong wrote eventually “is the creation of actions of sound what effects the men’s sense of cosmos […] sounds often provides the temporal continuum in which visual impression are embodied.” [1]

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FIREPLACE Communal space

S O C IAL S PAC E Sacrificial altar

The Fireplace is the next space in the sequence of the journey. It is the second core cosmos in the public life of the patients. In fact, It consists of a common space where gathering and social activities can be carried.

Everything revolves around a what is called the fire that in this case is a wide table positioned under a skylight which brings natural light, illuminating the action of cooking and preparing the food.

Here, the group can stay together and take part in the essential action of producing the meal.

The space has a game of light and shadow that is equally distributed. The peculiar shape of the ceiling; which is the extension of the same curvature of the threshold and the core, bend gently again and slowly lowers its elevation, framing the view of the landscape.

These architectural operations beside enclosing the nature like a scenery, allows its elements to invade the internal space. The transparent boundary in fact, during the warm month can be opened, rotating completely the windows that vanish in the light.

The experience of home is lived completely. It sis an experience of intimate warmth despite the communal essence of the space. The venue around the fireplace has an atmosphere of intimacy and comfort. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Marcel Proust in this regard, gives a poetic description of a space of intimate warmth net to a fireplace sensed by the skin; it is like an immaterial alcove, a warm cave carved into the room itself, a zone of hot weather with floating boundaries.â&#x20AC;? [1]

1.

Pallasma, J. (1994). The Eyes of the Skin.

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PLAYING

SHARE DINE

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PREPARATION OF THE MEAL

RESTING

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Preparing the meal it is an ancient human action that roots its essence in the primitive age. The great experience of alienation, detachment and solitude in the technological world nowadays has perhaps even affected the way how people feed themselves. Indeed, the word feed reflects more how food is seen today from a person who has lost contact with the meaning of primary actions.

The natural products and the process of transforming them in what is a communal meal, allow discovering the veracity of matter. The horizontal surface on which the preparation takes place is almost a sacrificial altar; It is the means of the ritual of eating.

Around the table, the patients will naturally interact with themselves and with their senses; smelling, tasting, touching, and looking. This expansion of the senses seeks the awakening of the perceptual system that has been put asleep by their burdens.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Fireplaceâ&#x20AC;? is not sealed for the outer world but instead establish a strong dialogue with the elements of nature. In fact, one of its physical boundaries consists of a complete transparent surface which contributes to mutate the inner atmosphere with the passage of time.

In winter, this translucent wall remains closed, reflecting the white light of the snow all inside of the space, disappearing and hiding its presence.

In the warmth months, on the other hand, the vertical frames pivot on themselves, opening completely and expanding the space which now is in continuity with nature.

The odour of the summer flowers and the deep fresh air brought by the wind it is free to enter. Nature is the space, space is nature.

The physical body of the patient is on the landscape as the heart is in the organism.

Space becomes an extension of nature and vice versa.

This is the solid terrain for perception and the horizon to experience our inner sphere and understand the world.

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THRESHOLD

Then again, the patient flows into the next chamber going through an in-between space. A threshold that emphasizes the passage between one status to another.

The auditory experience here is not tranquillity but a sort of unease. The lights on the ceiling are cuts that do not reveal their nature; are they natural skylight or artificial lights?

It is a game of perception that aims to create a temporary state of confusion. However, the bundle of strong glows irradiating the top of the trail invites the person to keep climbing the stairs and finish his journey.

The sound of the steps echoes in the space giving at the atmosphere an emotional charge, making the person who is walking through aware of his presence.

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WELL Intimate space

I N T I M AT E S P A C E A place to stay, a place to rest

The Well is a space of transition but it is also a place to stay.

The atmosphere begins to be intimate and more personal with the number of people that decrease and the space that reduce its measurement.

The atmosphere of transition is given by the shape of the void. It is a relatively small chamber that however is greatly extruded in the vertical direction. This conformation of the space gives a sense of infinity towards the sky which is visible from the opening. The lid of the space is in fact directly the sky. The mutation of its color during the day is the scene of the patient that like actors interpret and live the daily life.

Whereas, the movement of the sunlight traced on the inner walls establishes a precise link between space and time, involving the patients in the phenomenon of cosmic circulation.

The shape of the chamber, which is like a carved cave, on the other hand, invites the travelers to take a moment to stay and rest.

Here, the patients are welcomed to take part in intimate activities and personal interaction with a restricted number of people; a tranquil reading before going to bed or a chat with a new friend, likewise playing cards or chess.

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READING

MEETING

TALKING

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PLAYING

RESTING

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The movement of the projections allow us to spatialize time, that is to say to experience the linear and cardinal dimension of its becoming and at the same time, to temporize space. These two experiential conditions, but also existential, merge and offer themselves to us as a continuum.

Likewise places of worship, spiritual sites, and Turrellian Skyspaces, light is one of the main active characters in the space. It is a physical element, a sculptural material.

The celestial vault above the room and the circular shape changes its appearance between day and night becoming at first a positive shape; a physical image floating on the ceiling, then a negative object that seals the room.

Patients, besides the activities, can completely immerse themselves in the pure act of contemplation and become aware of their seeing.

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THRESHOLD

Leaving the intimate well, the patients that wants to go to their chambers, cross a threshold which is more narrow respect to ones encountered until now. The passage to the next space is indeed a funnel that flows into a wider corridor where the actual entrance of the rooms is.

Here, the artificial lights mark the ceiling as if there were opening to the natural sky. The structural cuts have an amorphous shape from which the light irradiate diffusely.

In fact, the section is characterized by a sharp edge that makes the light seem a physical evanescing body.

In this space, when the doors are all open, four bright holes appear on the wall. The light crosses the cambers and brake through the holes into the space, inviting people to enter and discover.

On the other hand, when the patients desire more privacy, they can close the doors completely by unfolding them from the niche in the wall. In this scenery, the appearance of the all-way changes achieving a sealed atmosphere.

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CAVE Personal space

P E R S O NAL S PAC E A place to meditate and purif y

The last step is the “Cave”, it is the most personal and intimate space. It is where the patient goes to rest and meditate in tranquillity.

After the journey in the bowels of the mountain, where the landscape and nature have been sipped like a precious wine, the person here achieve again the entire view of the valley. Looking at the massive alps, the green forests and all the nature around, the patient enter in possession again of the consciousness of place.

It is an intimate space, where the soul refuges from the sociality and where he can best reflect. It consists not only of a meditating space but also a precise place of purification of the body.

The last cavity of the project has four different ambient; like a cave that has multiple chambers yet belonging to the same structure.

The people living in the “House of Rituals”, explore the voids like voyagers that visit ancient or natural caves, finding and establishing the best spot for them where to carry intimate and personal movements.

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MEDITATING

SLEEPING

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PURIFICATION OF THE BODY

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The project is a sequence of spaces and places inbetween. Thresholds that mark the passage between one state to another; from one atmosphere to another again.

The liminal surfaces are constantly bending, raising, and suddenly curving reducing the height.

These movements of dilatation and expansion determine the identity of the space in-between, in the case of â&#x20AC;&#x153;the caveâ&#x20AC;?, the threshold is the first step that guarantees access to the chamber.

The entrances can be closed with a door. When opened, the gate is hidden in a niche carved into the wall. The homogeneous surfaces of the two walls and the ceiling work as a funnel with its focus pointed toward, he bright window.

In fact, crossed the gate, the narrow and slender corridor direct the attention to the white and illuminated wall opposite to the entrance. The bright is inviting the traveller to go through space and discover what is hidden inside.

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The corridor suddenly enlarges revealing what is the main space of the cave. It is a simple and humble place that has however a powerful atmosphere.

The bed is positioned under an unperfect vault which is perforated by niches of all kinds.

Laying on the soft horizontal surface of the bed, the patient observes the game of light that the peculiar space is creating. The vault, in fact, ends before toughing the opposite wall, revealing a fracture from which the first rays of the sun in the morning break in.

In the warmth months, the person can also live the space that is in between the cave and the open nature. It is a place of almost two meters depth that is opened to the landscape.

However, it is still under the same ceiling, and protected by it the patient can sit in the niche intruded in the curved wall and observed the movement of nature.

Standing there barefoot on a smooth glacial stone, sensing the warmth of the sun-heated stone through oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s soles and looking at the blue infinite horizon is extraordinarily healing. Perhaps, making one part of the eternal cycle of nature.

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The sound of water drops recalls the patient attentions, suddenly the ears have the extraordinary capacity to carve a volume into the void. Prompt by curiosity, the traveller starts to search with his senses the origin of that trace.

Retracing step by step previous movements, the individual crosses the passage of the entrance again. Touching with a hand the wall, the skin reads the texture that suddenly discloses a hole.

The dark entrance of the last chamber of the cave appears in front of the patient. The darkness here reveals that is a different space from where the person was, almost like a sacred chamber hidden into the wall thickness.

Crossing the dark and fresh threshold, the patientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye adapts to the sudden change of light arriving to see what is a carved high cone, bathed by the light and what the ears before have sculptured directly in the interior of the mind.

The chamber is a space of water; a pace of purification where everything revolves around water and bathing.

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CONCLUSION

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P E R S O N A L O B S E R V AT I O N Ref lection and conclusion

I believe this work has originated before the beginning of the graduation studio. In fact, the feeling of exploring themes that questioned the utility of space and architecture was something present in my mind. I was especially fascinated by the emotional power of someplace and how these directly affect moods, emotions, and human interactions.

Likewise, living in Tokyo last year showed me as well the negative influence that the modern non-stop contemporary life can have on some individuals.

Nevertheless, it is thanks to the Graduation studio that I could take a direction and have the opportunity to investigate these themes, developing my personal critical answer.

Since the phenomenological nature of what I was studying and the fact that I was oscillating between architecture, art, science, and psychology, facing the research phase has been a difficult path.

In general, it can be said that these themes may be subjective.

However, in support of the thesis, I discovered along with the research that, many people from different disciplines have investigated the atmospheric power of space and the influence of it on generating human interaction. Likewise, often feeling perceived in such spaces are shared and told.

Moreover, the conversation with Professor Agostino De Rosa in this sense has been fundamental since he gave me further directions and feedbacks.

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During the conclusion of this book, where I had the opportunity to reflect with a critical eye on the entire path and see the design strategy finished, I could notice how the story was taking shape and all the dots were connecting.

The visualization of the project, the axonometric schemes, and the drawings are representing the synthesis of what has been studied and showed through various schemes.

The synergetic relation between the different atmospheric powers of each space, the different relationships between people and the interaction with nature is visible through the images of “House of Rituals”.

However, what is not possible to see is the outcome of living for a year in the “House of Riruals” on the patients.

I am aware that the work has led to an architectural project that oscillates between immanence, transcendence, objective, and subjective and therefore may be hard to frame.

However, a critical approach that reason on literature and base decisions on objective matters have always been adopted.

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Moreover, It is also true that sadly, with the recent event, themes like space, emotions, relations, and death have become something daily discussed understanding perhaps again their importance.

In the past few months, due to the tragic pandemic spread that the world is facing, like most everyone I have spent my days in my studio; a single room apartment. Here, while designing spaces that could help people heal and recover from traumatic experiences, defeat depression and establishing human relationships, I meditated on what was happening around me and what I was doing.

Beside [re]understanding myself the importance of these primary elements, I discover some links to the Graduation project.

Especially with the answer to the sub-questions; CAN SPACE AFFECT HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AND EMOTIONAL SPHERE and CAN SPACE BUILT RELATIONSHIPS?

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This year was an intense period which not only challenged me professionally but also gave me the chance to know myself more. Beside the complete autonomy in design and interest decisions the individual journey, not without difficulties, has been for me a path of discover.

The thesis represents a decisive step and conclusion my academic career as well as a moment of stasis before a new beginning.

Hence, arrived at the end of this challenging journey and formative experience I take the chance to thank those people who had been fundamental and that always have sustained me.

Thanks to my tutors, who have followed the work, stimulating and giving useful critiques.

Thanks to the many friends who have been always present and supportive. In particular to Tiziano that shared with me ideas and joyful moments during the many breaks. To Giorgia who has always listened and encouraged me. As well as, to Federico, Nicola and all the one that despite the distance where always there.

Thank to my family who always believed in me and helped me in all the possible ways.

You are the biggest strength and support in my life.

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