A healing experience

With our brief focusing on mourning processes I chose to take a less formal approach and instead of concentrating on funerals specifically, I explored grief on a greater scale. Researching into how grief can be viewed as a sequence of stages (Grief, Healing, Growth, Maturity) that we cycle through infinitely.

Our society turns a blind eye to grief. Therefore I felt it was important to recognise the positive impact that thinking and talking about grief can have on our well-being.
Having my scheme take the user through my four main grief processes creates a more conscious understanding of how we process death. This forms a healing experience that is beneficial for the user, wherever they are in their own grieving journey.

I aimed to create four different spaces. All semi-outdoors with a focus on a journey through the beautiful woodland. Each space captures the essence of each stage, taking you through a visceral journey, to guide the user and develop an understanding of grief.
Grief plunges the user into a void-like contemplation space, pierced by needles of light.
Healing focuses on biophilia and how inherently healing the sun is. Creating an almost gallery-like space where a triptych of framed views lines a sun-filled walkway.
The path takes a sudden turn, becoming fully streamlined on the last leg of the journey. This represents the turning point which is growth.
Then finally, directly above the starting point, the user is led to a viewing platform in which there is both a focus upward and a downward connection to where they started. This understanding that the cycle will continue is maturity.

I could have spent so much more time exploring this concept as I found it fascinating. Overall I really enjoyed this project and brief. This enthusiasm resulted in me covering a wide range of design methods. Starting the project with slightly playful conceptual models allowed me to instantly start developing an atmospheric understanding which was very beneficial.