Amanda Stan

Bulwer St. Residence

Environmental Design

2021

37 Bulwer St. situated near the intersection of Queen St. West and Spadina Ave. is a secret haven renovated and redesigned to aid and nurture the new clients specific needs. The client is a 35 year old that has post traumatic stress disorder due to serving in the army in foreign countries , making it difficult for them to go through daily activities without being affected by loud noise, the overwhelming of visual and auditory senses, flashbacks, high functioning anxiety and fear, claustrophobia, and insomnia. The client also has an emotional support animal living with them. The homes redesign will provide as a safe space for the client, aiding visual and auditory needs as well as elements of comfort, aesthetic and promoting a new healthy vibrant lifestyle.HEALTH The client is a single, physically healthy 34 year old veteran who has served in the army on difficult missions in foreign countries. Due to her many life threatening experiences while serving, she has developed post traumatic stress disorder. Due to her PTSD, the client experiences intense anxiety, fear, flashbacks, insomnia and claustrophobia. These attributes of her disorder intensely affect her visual and auditory senses the most.PROGRESSThe clients current progress includes doing therapy/counselling, being in support groups to share experiences and being in more nature and outdoor environments.INTERESTSAside from her PTSD the client enjoys spending time with family and friends and often has guest over for support, being in the outdoors, doing meditation, and has an emotional support animal living in home with her.GROUND FLOOR: The client's needs consists of a space that calms and eases sensory triggers such as sounds and the visual field. With those considerations in mind the design of house has an open plan with a limitation of interior walls that ease from transparent to translucent to opaque to alleviate the symptoms of not knowing what comes next, which can be triggering to the client. A central atrium expanding from the second and bottom floor allows also for a better and more confident feild of vision throughout the home. The north/front of the home close to the street utilizes the existing building as a protective screen element to create more privacy and alleviate high frequency sound coming from the road and nearby school. The walls of the home have also been renovated to include soundproof acoustic plasterboard and mineral wool.SECOND FLOOR: The home acts as a sliding form allowing for the merging of where outside meets inside space to be fused together. The Main atrium living area is meant to be a space that connects the two outdoor areas and is an open environment to host counselling, therapy or just to enjoy with family and friends. The importance of light and air quality have also been taken into great consideration for the clients benefits, the large windows allow for natural light to easily come into the home and the openable windows also allow for easily circulation. The element of sliding doors has also been implemented in the design to alleviate corners and instead always keep a steady visual when opening and closing into spaces.ROOF GARDEN: The outdoor garden spaces are a focus on the clients healing process, being outdoors for enjoyment while also staying in touch with nature for grounding, and healing symptoms. The outdoor areas are an element that help put certain senses in focus to alleviate triggers, such as the sense of smell being in focus to create a calming effect caused by the plants and flowers. Natural soundproofing is also being used in the ground floor outdoor space with a small water fountain, used to be a sound focus to cover up other street noise.