Village of virtue psychiatric rehabilitation clinic in Westfort village

Abstract

The harsh reality for individuals in need of psychiatric help in South Africa is that appropriate medical care is reserved only for the worst cases. Patients who are admitted to long and short-term care experience symptoms of a deteriorating mental state before admission, yet there is no formalised method of treatment for them. This issue is exacerbated by the impact of the economy; the influence of the socio-economic reality on the prevalence of mental illness is not only real but also repetitive in its nature. Individuals living in poverty and with poor mental health are at an increased risk of remaining poor. In the late 1800’s the issue of leprosy demanded infrastructure to care for ill patients who were able to easliy transmit the disease. In 1898 the Pretoria Leprosy hospital was built in Pretoria West this hospital later was renamed Westfort Village. This precinct was demarcated as space for leprosy patients to be treated far away from the metropolis and in so doing limit the impact of the disease. The village was designed to be a self-propelling organism equiped with all the infrastructure needed to house the patients and the staff. The hospital was put out of commission in 1997. In the present moment much of what Westfort Village used to be has been taken over by informal settlements, with much of the existing infrastructure being taken over for residential use. This design project aims to restore the spirit of the village as a healthcare precinct. Introducing a psychiatric rehabilitation centre that is propelled by community engagement and auxillary programmes that encourage ownership and possession by the growing community in the village. The design makes use of Christopher Alexander’s theory of aliveness and how it manifests through well-informed spatial gestures. Ultimately the generated structure ought to aid in the rehabilitation of the patients while also participating in a community engaging language of space-making.