Reformation of a Public Square for the City of Ukraine, Mykolaiv
a step towards psycho-social healing environment for a postwar city
HYPOTHESIS
Public squares with restorative environment could become a place to reconcile and could act as magnet to reconnect people with their city post-war.
DRAFT PROTOCOL
Public squares, being the ‘common ground’ for relaxation and gathering, need to act as ‘restorative ground’ during post-war reconstruction. This will help reduce anxiety and depression, also enhance ‘psycho-social healing’ process for people with post-traumatic stress.
CONCEPTUAL HYPOTHESIS BACKING THE PROTOCOL
What are the design considerations to create restorative environments for Public Square?
How to achieve ‘optimal zone’ of arousal in a public square for people going through post-traumatic stress?
- How to stimulate the senses of people experiencing ‘hypo-arousal’ state?
- How to calm the senses of people experiencing ‘hyper-arousal’ state?
This can make the restorative environment more effective on people using the space.
TYPE OF MEASUREMENT TO STUDY AND EVALUATE
Investigate whether the current nature of public square offers comfort zone or balanced state to people with post-traumatic stress.
To identify balanced state or comfort zone through virtually designed restorative environments, for people with and without post-traumatic stress.
To know about our data collection methods and results, feel free to contact us
Design Guidelines to foster Well-being
Trauma-informed design needs to be a prioritization when it comes to design of a postwar reconstruction; to be considered from macro-scale planning to micro-scale design. The starting point for every decision must be rooted in collaboration, trauma awareness and context sensitivity. At the same time, the new development requires innovation.
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