For my Final Major Project I designed a rehabilitation centre for sporting athletes. After the summer of 2012 where London hosted the XXX(30th) Olympic Games, sport in the UK has boomed, with more young people wanting to get involved and become like the athletes they saw on TV. However it is not all glamour like we see when the athletes compete. Unfortunately many athletes at some point in their sporting journey will be held back by injury. With more people being involved in sport we need to help invest in these athletes that may one day be our next gold medalist. With this in mind I wanted to create a rehabilitation centre for athletes to come and revitalize themselves back to health from injury or after the stress of competition.
The centre Vitality Wells combines a cohousing residential area for athletes with long term injuries, needing to stay within the centre for a couple of months to athletes who are coming back for a treatment or just to regenerate themselves, giving them time away from their sport that they live and breathe everyday. With facilities for all stages of rehabilitation the centre will help the athletes first come to terms with the impact of their injury, through to helping the athlete disperse back into their sport slowly with different therapy techniques, finally to releasing them back to their sport for them to continue on with their journey in sport.
Vitality Wells is situated in Seething Wells on the outside of Kingston Upon Thames. The site used to be Chelsea and Lambeth Waterworks, located next to the River Thames. With a pure source of water free from impurities, the site provided healthy water to the whole of London, and is now going to help remove impurities of the athletes helping them get back to full health.
Mainly looking at how injury affects an athletes i have designed a space to help the athletes come to terms with their injuries. With the space reflecting its origonal use helping provide health to London, the industrial space has been mirrored by the matterials and forms created within the psace.
Seething Wells Site - Used as Nuffield Health Centre and Kingston University Halls.
The origonal character of the building can still be seen with exposed steel structure and industrial finishes.
Sun Paths - The south west Facade see most of the sunlight throughout the day. this was key when moving the mezzanine level in the pool area to make the most of the sun coming through the windows.
Concept Image - Here you can see how the building and athlete work together, with the emotional response of the athlete and the old use of the building merge together to create the 3 stages of the athletes journey through the space.
General Arangement of the space - Here you can see how the space is broken into three main areas, Crystallisation Zone, Disperse Zone and Vapour Zone. Each Zone reflecting a different stage of injury.
3D Development - Development of Start Zone (reception) in Vectorworks
CAD Development - Development of Pool Area
Visualisation of Crystallisation Zone - Using small private spaces to help the athlete with the impact of their injury. With smaller treatment rooms and enclosed spaces to help consider how the athlete may be feeling.
Treatment Rooms - Moving through the different stages of injury is hard, both with the physical and emotions effects. The three different rooms help reflect this transition through stages, from Solidify Room - Harsh, Enclosed, Exploration Room - Fluidity, disperse, Critique Room - Release, Dissolve
Visualisation of Disperse Zone - Coming to terms with the impact of their injury the athletes are able to have more fluidly as their lives and their injury starts to dissolve out of the body.
Vapour Zone - Finally feeling the release of being able to return back into their sport and regain their full fitness, the athlete's are able to look out upon the journey they have taken.
Treatment Bed - When designing the treatment bed I kept in mind the idea of the 3 stages of injury or 3 states of matter. Looking at the idea of Crystallisation - solid, Dispersing - Liquid, Vaporising - Gas.
These three stages have been applied to the design of the treatment bed. With the bed itself creating a fluid form to comfort the body. The plinth a solid object to hold necessary documents and treatments, and finally the supports a light weight structure designed to make the bed seem as if to be floating within the space, only lightly touching the existing building.
