Our society has changed; we live in a world directed by the technologies.
The young generations live under a constant pressure measured by social media “likes”.
People have to learn that there is a world beyond the screens, a world in which only our own opinion is relevant.
I reached the conclusion that the problem is rooted in the need of approval that society continually generates, forcing us to prove that our life is better than the others.
I realized that each photo uploaded to social media reflects the lack of security and the need to compensate the shortcomings of the real world with the fallacies of a more satisfying virtual world.
Dramatic arts in general --theater, dance, commedy...-- allow the individual to belong to the group and to feel relevant as a part of it. Acting increases self reliance. All the participants participate as part to an end. That is the reason why I feel it is necessary to project Social Interaction spaces to publicly show our strengths and to accept our shortcomings, learning how to live as a group and how to enjoy our own personal intimacy. We need to project a space where we can learn to know ourselves. The forest was the space selected to develop this project. Its tall and slender pine trees will be the ideal scenario to use Nature as a shock therapy. Locating the treatment center in a clearing in the woods, formerly a meeting point and picnic area for families and trekkers, provides added value to the project: the interns will be able to link with general public. Entering the site provokes an effect similar to entering a theater hall, whit the woods providing an adequate backdrop. The idea is to present the project itself as a public scenario, while leaving the spaces for intimacy in the inner woods among the trees. The built elements bond with the natural environment, creating a similar ambience through the repetition of slender steel shafts acting as supporting columns. Horizontal platforms linked by footbridges and supported by trusses vibrate with the environment, mirroring it.
The modules housing the different uses are located on the horizontal platforms. They are completely permeable, inviting the interns to relate and to communicate with others leaving aside their diffidence or bashfulness. Permeability is also intended to allow a constant relationship with the natural environment surrounding the users. The project itself is a mise-en-scène. Besides housing their own functions, the modules themselves serve as stage settings, as screens showing the life that develops in its interior, creating focuses of interest all along the built space. The footbridge adjacent to the woods barrier deploys the residential units in the tree clearings, providing the user with the privacy she can't find in the screen of her terminal. The main footbridge gives way to areas of networking, broadening to become social lounges. These spaces lead to a functional module that will also provide a stage set for the observer thanks to the open visual flow of the spaces. The free standing structure will allow the user to always feel surrounded by the forest. At the groundfloor level, a network of pathways converging in a stage set where the rehabilitated intern will act in her final play, full of restored confidence. A motto all along this project has been to produce a continued stimulus through spaces combining environmental awareness and sensitivity towards the dramatic arts.
The Board:
