Disconnect to connect: Designing a retreat for Pathological Internet users
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It is indisputable that we live in a time of technological reliance, with an ever-increasing amount of global citizens gaining access to the Internet. In Canada, Internet-related mental illness is on the rise, compounded by the lack of attention from the Canadian medical professionals, as well as the general public. Canadian Internet users are at risk; excessive and problematic Internet use causes the experience of disembodiment, disconnection from one’s surroundings, and isolation from society. This project responds to the needs of a specialized treatment facility for Pathological Internet users in Canada, based on the work of numerous medical, behavioural, and architectural authors. The studies of clinicians Kimberley Young and Richard Davis provide the clinical background for understanding Pathological Internet Use (PIU), its causes, and its treatments. French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s perspectives on human perception and behaviour are also studied. His works on the relationship between the self and the natural world, the self and the built environment, as well as the self and other human beings lay the groundwork for exploring and treating Pathological Internet Users’ addictive behaviours through psychological and architectural lenses. Architectural theories, including Atmospheric Architecture, Biophilic Design, and Supportive Design, are investigated to further enhance treatments and optimize prevention strategies. Four projects, directly responding to the architectural theories, are dissected to show how architectural theories are translated into design solutions. The result of this theoretical analysis and precedent study is a fictional retreat specialized in treating Pathological Internet users called re:intent, located at Falcon Lake in the Whiteshell Provincial Park in Manitoba. The interior environment is designed to optimize the efficiency of the treatments by promoting inter-connection with nature, with architecture, and with other people.