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FOSTERING RECOVERY
a new center for urban wellness + rehabilitation medicine in vancouver, washington

Thesis Project

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People don't want to be "less sick" they want to feel well.

The traditional process for those recovering from debilitating illness or injury when learning to return back to daily life after a major hospital stay is one that typically involves routine visits to doctor’s offices, outpatients procedures, and ongoing therapy. The healing process centers on quantifiable improvement where, more often than not, one’s ailment is treated, rather than their overall wellbeing. Given our approach toward the inevitable demand for new healthcare buildings, this project is an investigation of the spaces needed for a new urban step down facility for those emerging after treatment from physical trauma such as stroke, paralysis, or sports injury.

But it is not a hospital.

Rather, it aspires to be a fun, healthy, and active center for the short term resident as well as become a new visible center for public wellness in downtown Vancouver. It is a place where it’s easy to breathe, where community values are embodied, and where public and private relationships surrounding health are blurred.

“Fostering Recovery” tells a simple story: wellness is achieved through harmonizing mental and physical health in environments that make people happy.