A health retreat : building/landscape reciprocity

Abstract

This thesis applies architectural principles sympathetic to reciprocity between buildings and the landscape. It is composed from generic vocabularies derived from Scandinavian and other references, and is demonstrated by a study for a health retreat at Poland Spring, Maine. The site and program were teamed on t he premise that communion with the landscape can develop, for the willing user, awareness to holistic health. Structural elements were deployed to signal the nature of places, such as circulation, shelter or exposure. The site is organized into receiving, athletic, treatment and retreat clusters. At both building and site size, they range from containment to openness as appropriate for Maine's variable climate.