Stone cold clean & dry : a substance abuse rehab center In Manhattan

Abstract

Joseph Califano, founder and president of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, declares drug an alcohol abuse the causes and contributor to "just about every intractable problem our nation faces" including health care, legal, poverty and social inequity issues. The US is 4% of the world's population but it consumes more than half the world's mood-altering and painkilling pharmaceuticals and two-thirds of the world's illegal drugs. Pharmaceutical industries have been on the brink of "curing" addiction for decades however, most experts agree that even in this age of neuroscience and advanced chemistry, the only proven treatment for addiction today is essentially a spiritual one. And it works. This thesis aims to design a center for recovery from addiction where architecture is used to create places that bring their occupants closer to the cycles and patterns of human existence; that act as filters to provide safety inside and act as a lenses that reveal the world in new, sober and wonderful ways. The project will be located in Manhattan, in the neighborhood of Kips Bay, among a large cluster of medical facilities. Unlike most rehab centers, this institution will negotiate its functions within an urban setting. It will interact with existing social and physical infrastructures in order to better service the patients while maintaining a disconnect that will nurture them in privacy. This thesis seeks to use architecture as a tool for reconnecting inhabitants with their environment and ultimately, themselves. An individual's interaction with a building and a building's interaction with its environment can create a chain that will be beneficial to all involved.