Pedagogical | brennatomas

Institutional Design

In the healthcare industry, many of the barriers and restraints have been set in place are a result of the ineffective architectural design of institutions for the people who live there. The objective of this building, a vertical and circular paned glass building, has been designed to offer elders and individuals living with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s disease the opportunity to live in a space that has been specifically created for their personal needs.

People living with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s disease often suffer from symptoms such as memory loss, poor judgement, wandering and/or getting lost and increased anxiety and irritation. Often, home care facilities are isolated to the outskirts of the city. The facilities are usually square shaped with multiple locked doors and code entry units, equipped with many different types of alarms and security guards used to control the behaviours of the residents. This design focuses on eliminating those barriers and restraints from our elderly.

The building features four vertically, stacked, circular floors with an atrium in the middle, located in the core of the city. One of the middle floors would be the living space for seniors while other floors would serve the needs of the community. Integrating a recreation centre, daycares, art galleries and other social environments will open the door for seniors to enjoy multiple intergenerational and community based activities.

There are multiple benefits to the building design to be explored. This project is one example of the ways that I enjoy designing for vulnerable populations and it has become clear to me that architectural design is vital to the happiness and health of the inhabitants.

Current Events

A number of positively spun, fake news headlines and articles illustrate the juxtaposition between altruistic, hoped for, societal movements and the existing systems which push them further into the realm of impossibility. These headlines were written from my personal perspective about things that I would like to see happen in the world based on the things that affect me personally.

This project opens the viewers eyes to the possibilities of solving issues in the world with realistic solutions. One of the most problematic issues with conceiving my own utopia is the key elements that are missing from my individual experience. Although, this gives a solid portrait of myself and the issues that I personally care about, I would like to move this project to exhibition space where I can administer the fake news headlines that are hoped for by the public, and associate those with a location on the map that it refers to.

Documenting the hoped for headlines of the public would create a historical document, recording not the concerns of a generation, but the hoped for solutions. The piece would allow the public to make suggestions as to where I needed to put more emphasis, in turn, highlighting their own concerns about things that affect them in the present day. This shared utopian experience could be one of the most educational collaborative based art project for myself and the public.

Adaptations

Adaptations is an all inclusive, highly versatile, adaptable clothing line, designed for people with special needs, yet, fashionable enough that everyone will want to wear it. As a woman who has been sizes 0-14 and given birth to a child, I’ve noticed certain pieces of my wardrobe that looked great no matter what size I was. This knowledge helped me over the years as a Recreation Therapist when I would spend hours pulling stylish looks from stores during outings to the mall with hopes that they would fit my clients with special needs. I noticed that the adaptable clothing marketed to people with special needs isn’t very stylish and the adaptations were also somewhat extreme.

I realized that I could combine my knowledge of the basic adaptations that people with special needs would require in their clothing and the styles and trends that have continuously fit well and looked good over a number of years while fluctuating sizes. My experience as a fit model provided me with a general understanding of sustainability, practicality and feasibility of certain styles and materials.

My dream would be that people I know with special needs would be able to continue shopping at the mall, at the same stores where everybody else likes to shop. I believe that this line of clothing could be carried by a store and consumers would purchase the garments without any realization that they were initially made with a special needs customer in mind.

I believe that Adaptations makes a solid effort to illustrate the inclusive styles that are possible for all individuals. Pants, tops, blouses, blazers, skirts and dresses are all included in this line. Adaptations gives people a fashionable twist on essentials that every person would like to wear, while prioritizing the most vulnerable population first.

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