Week 2 of the City Fit module was incredibly full on, with tutorials and workshops happening most days to help us develop our initial ideas for our concept reviews. During this week we had our first refresher session using SketchUp with Charlie. This was very informative and enabled me to obtain additional skills which I hadn’t used before; one main skill I learned was how to apply layers into my SketchUp models. I had used layers before, but my products have never been to this scale and therefore it was important that I knew how to use them efficiently to reduce the amount of complications which happen along the way. Alongside this I had a tutorial with Mike Duncan; this was also very informative, and he was very excited at the prospect of my design. As a designer himself he spoke about how he worked with the charitable organisation ‘mind’ and that they are constantly looking for new ways to help support individuals of whom suffer from conditions such as anxiety, depression and OCD (just to name a few). After visiting the MIND wales building in Roath and also researching into spaces specifically designated for mental health, I noticed that the interior of these spaces was incredibly depressing, bland and clinical which is very ironic considering people go to the space to get help for these reasons. These spaces should be easily approachable, not scary and natural to reduce the stigma related to these illnesses.
I had considered developing a healthy kitchen/restaurant and coffee shop within the space to enable individuals to sit, relax and eat and drink healthy food and beverages. This coffee shop will be open to anyone not just the people using the space which not only provide a profit for the organisation but also normalises mental health. Although I would like some of the sessions to be pre- booked e.g. counselling sessions and healthy cooking sessions, I also want there to be a large amount of fluidity within the space; thus, encouraging passers-by to come in chat, or join in on yoga and mindfulness sessions. After speaking with Mike about this he thought it was very good to normalise the space to ensure that it is not just used as a mental health centre but as a place accessible to anyone and everyone.
Through the development of my project so far I have been inclined to create a yoga space on the ground floor which provides taster sessions for all ages and abilities; thus fun, free and enjoyable which means it doesn’t matter if it is loud on the ground floor with everything else going on. The more focused yoga classes will be help upstairs where there is less noise and more privacy. All the rooms within this space will be multifunctional which is most appropriate for functions which will take place within the building. For example, the yoga rooms will be able to be used for the teaching of centering and meditations as they require very little equipment.
Charlotte's blog 