Supervisor:
Beate Hølmebakk and Chris-Johan Engh
Today there are over 60,000 drug-addicted individuals living in Norway. Addiction, in all its forms, is a major health issue, and the role of the built environment in recovery facilities is overlooked.
The conventional approach is to adopt hospital-like typologies, which completely fails to accommodate emotional aspects like beauty and hope. This project positions itself as emotionally attuned architecture, where spatial narratives, sensory experiences, and associations are formed to mirror and support the rehabilitation journey.
The site
All three buildings emerge from the same site and together form an architectural experiment. Exploring how these three different programs, which typically are unwanted in central urban contexts, can be integrated into an common urban condition through architecture
Building One: Consumption
The function of this building is to give drug addicted individuals a place to consume their drugs under constant observation of health professionals, this is to reduce the risk of overdose. The secondary function is to serve as a contact between users and the healthcare system.
Since the users are largely people living a life on the streets, they are in a constant struggle to find a place of their own. They therefore consume in niches along a zig-zag wall while being observed by nurses under a skylight. Their program encircles an enclosed inner garden. This building is constructed from reclaimed bricks and wood.
Building two: Withdrawal
The function of this building is to shelter the people who have decided to quit drugs for the time they will experience the intense withdrawal symptoms. The program of this building contains nine apartments and facilities for the workers who will take care of them. They will stay here for about two weeks to a month.
The idea for this building was the users would essentially lock themselves into an apartment until the symptoms were gone, turning the apartment into a time capsule. These apartments would be stepped back on top of each other so they could feel each others presence, but separated by thick earth walls to not hear their neighbors suffering. This building is constructed from rammed earth, rolled steel plates and Leca blocks.
Building three: Transition
The function of this building is to give the people who have completed the withdrawal a place to live for a while as they attempt to find their way back into society. These people have lived unconventional lives, often coming from dysfunctional homes. Therefore the building also offers life skill classes, like cooking, cleaning and job skills. They would live here for about a year.
The idea for this building was that the apartments lie towards the backyard and the life skill classes toward the city. They would then walk through bridges between these worlds.
Contact
Vemund Lindstad Isum / vemundisum@gmail.com / +47 94 98 81 82