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THESIS TOPIC:
Submitted by: TOOBA SAEED
HEALING AND WELLNESS CENTER 70074236

CHAPTER # 1 - INTRODUCTION
THESIS STATEMENT:
This healing and wellness center intend to heal a person’s holistically (mind, body, spirit and emotions)
by natural ways without medications in Lahore.
DISCRIPTION:
Medications are also helpful but one can never get healed without a better and fresh environment. The
intent of this center is to help patients connect with nature to help aid in the healing processes. Exposure
to nature can not only make people feel better emotionally, but physically as well. Any environment a
person is exposed to has the ability to either increase or decrease stress which in turn can impact our
bodies. The things we see, hear, or experience can affect our moods and how certain systems in our
bodies are working.
Architecture that incorporates nature can have an impact on its everyday users, and people with anger
and fear, suffering from depression, anxiety, stress, inferiority complex and the bipolar states.
Typology of people requiring treatment:
1. INTENSIVE CARE - Immediate, long term treatment
2. HEALING PROCESS - Regular, long term treatment
3. MINOR ISSUES - seldom visits treatment
4. FUNCTIONAL – 1 or more visits

BACKGROUND:

The way the environment is perceived deeply effects one’s thinking and behavior. The important fact
being that the outside environment is the most important determinant of the inner mental life. Existing
psychological hospitals does not provide the environment to the patients necessary for their treatment
and also for their better and quick recovery. With modern medical technology, the use of healing spaces
as a way to help in the healing process has diminished.
So, to plan healing and wellness center with the environment which would be suitable for their
treatment and quick recovery naturally and also give them homely feeling is required. Also, there is only
1 healing center in Pakistan, ‘SuJok natural healing center - Karachi’.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:
• The idea behind bringing the wellness center into the most urban of environments in the city like
Lahore, is to prove healing can be achieved in a notoriously unhealthy environment.
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• The thesis focuses on creating architecture that enhances spiritual healing by acting as a medium
between human soul and the energy of the universe.
• Enjoinment and responses from other people are more important and work wonders to build back
the self-esteem and psychological illness then medication.

• I want to explore that how the ancient’s spiritual traditions and spaces helped in healing oneself.

• It will not be a medical complex but an environment that forms its own identity as a place where
one goes to rebalance their imbalanced life.
• My objective is to create a building where individual will not feel that they are treated.

• Patient education on lifestyle changes and self-care to promote wellness. This may include diet,
exercise, psychotherapy, relationship and spiritual counseling, and more

• Complementary and alternative therapies such as acupuncture, chiropractic care, homeopathy,

massage therapy, naturopathy, and others
CLIENT:
Ministry of Health Pakistan with the collaboration of Pakistan Psychiatric Society.
USER:
As the project will be training, and service organization dedicated to improving the lives of persons who
have psychiatric disabilities and rehabilitation service users. So, the target group will be:

• People requiring treatment

• Professionals (therapists and counseling experts)

• Service staff
• Visitors

CHAPTER # 2 – DATA COLLECTION

BUILDING TYPOLOGY:
This project is a healing and wellness center.
1. HEALING CENTER:
Healing is the process of re-establishing harmony with in the organism. Illness implies a loss of this
balance and the need for reintegration with the body’s natural ability to heal and regenerate. Healing
cannot be understood in isolation from the factors that operate in the dynamic life of an individual.
These include the self, the family, the community, the environmental context with in which life is carried
forth, and the world of spirit or essence. Healing is dependent on re-establishing successful relationships
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and developing reciprocity between these factors. In fact, healing is not a process of curing or fixing, but
rather a return to balance between all of these components.
2. WELLNESS CENTER:
Wellness is not just defined as being free from an illness but also as a state of emotional well-being, that
may foster spiritual development. Happiness plays an important role in wellness and different people
have different ideas about how to achieve it. Healing places are real spaces where people find ways to
become happier and find support in reducing the stress induced by various causes.
The goal for health in the east is to develop a new wellness typology that addresses the factors of
wellbeing at both the individual and the community level. The program reflects aspects of eastern health
because it holistically incorporates the many dimensions of wellness. This thesis aims to spread
knowledge of preventative, healthy lifestyle choices across the country in environments where
communities have limited exposure to the wellness solution. The wellness center provides a variety of
spaces which give users options on their journey to wellness.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Holistic health practitioners have many ways of healing, but they share a common basic approach. They
believe in the ancient idea that healing is most effective when you consider the whole person, rather
than focusing on specific illnesses, body parts or symptoms.
Healing methods in the ancient days consisted of religious rites, ceremonies and special formulas which
brought for the mysterious, miraculous powers of deities and other supernatural beings. Long
throughout history healing spaces have been used as an aid in the healing process, from the temples of
ancient Greece to the Japanese Zen Garden. Spiritual Healing has its roots in ancient history from Egypt,
Babylon, Greece, Jerusalem, and the Orient, where it was practiced in their temples of worship.
TYPES OF REQUIRED SPACES (SPATIAL REQUIRMENTS):
1. Spiritual healing:
Some people get in touch with their spiritual side through private prayer, yoga, meditation, and Quiet
reflection, a belief of super natural or even long walks.

• Yoga
• Meditation/ Qigong

• Crystal Healing

• Quantum Healing
2. Therapeutic healing:
Different bath and massage therapy, musical therapy, and other different therapies based on different
individuals survey.
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• Musical therapy

• Aromatic therapy
• Hydro therapy

• Massage therapy

• Color therapy
• Acupuncture & Moxibustion

• Mind-body healing
3. Counseling:
Counseling as individual one to one talk with a professional or group talk with other people.

• Group conversations

• Individual counseling

• Personality building counseling sessions

• Religious counseling sessions
4. Physical activities:

• Gym

• Swimming
• Cycling

• Aerobics
• Dance class
• Jogging & walk
5. Recreational activities:
Different games either video games or physical.

• Indoor sports
• Outdoor sports
6. Reading therapy:
Reading books and other articles or religious books can also be a therapy for some people.
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7. Arts and crafts activities:

• Painting
• Pottery
• Woodworking

PLANNING CONSIDERATION:

• Maximum use of natural light for meditation.

• To maintain and increase the landscape in the site.

• To create a unified environment where physical and mental healing takes place.

• To add the elements of nature in to the built form.

• To integrate water as important element of healing.

• Scheduling views to connect user to the nature.

• Cautious designing of acoustics.

• Internal corridors should face courtyards or should have skylights.

• Experiential pedestrian pathways.

• Green drive and walkways to be provided.

• Separation of Public, private and therapy areas.

• Proper color and textures to be used.

• Interactive spaces to be given.

FOCUS AREA TO STUDY:
THERAPEUTIC ARCHITECTURE;
Architecture is an important factor in people's lives when they are well; when they experience ill-health
and are less able to cope it becomes even more important. Therapeutic architecture can be described as
the people-centered, evidence-based discipline of the built environment, which aims to identify and
support ways of incorporating those spatial elements that interact with people physiologically and
psychologically into design. Sometimes also referred to as ‘healthcare architecture’, is not entirely a new
in concept, but it is slowly entering the consciousness of mainstream thought.
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CASE STUDIES:
1. Quite healing center, Nadu India.
2. Temple mound holistic healing center, Florida.
3. Spiritual healing center, near Haridwar India.
4. Paimo sanatorium, Aalto.
5. SuJok healing center, Karachi.

CITATION:
▪ Chrysikou, E – 2014 https://www.iospress.nl/book/architecture-for-psychiatric-environments-and-
therapeutic-
spaces/#:~:text=Therapeutic%20architecture%20can%20be%20described,physiologically%20and%
20psychologically%20into%20design.
▪ Article by; TNN – 2019 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/home-
remedies/5-most-effective-energy-healing-techniques-and-how-they-
work/articleshow/70698807.cms
▪ Thomas Owens of Re-Space – 2020 https://workinmind.org/2020/01/17/the-new-science-of-
therapeutic-architecture-and-what-it-could-mean-for-your-workplace/
▪ https://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/what-is-holistic-medicine#1