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Detox: Addiction Rehabilitation
Thesis    -    Spring 2023


How can architects think about spatializing addiction recovery? How can architects reshape a patient's experience through a progression of program, form, and materials? Traditional approaches to addiction recovery focus on pharmacological and behavioral interventions, which are important, but forget about the impact that the built environment has on our states of mind. This oversight, among other factors, has led to the condition of rehabilitation facilities today: institutionalized, lifeless, and devoid of human connection. As a result, 85% of addicts will relapse within the first year of leaving an addiction treatment center.


Can architecture help to ensure a lasting treatment effect?

This is the vision behind my architectural thesis: a design for a rehabilitation facility that puts human connection, healing, and environmental stewardship at the forefront. By integrating elements like natural beauty, communal living spaces, and even the reintroduction of native species to the surrounding ecosystem, we can create a space that not only treats addiction, but helps prevent it from taking hold in the first place.

For this Thesis Project, I was awarded The Walton Distinguished Thesis Award


Diagrams and Background:


Opiates have severe physical withdrawal symptoms for up to the first 14 days of abstinence. During this time period, a patient will be sicker than they have ever been before. This phase is referred to as detox. After detox, the healing shifts from a physiological to a psychological focus.
During an outpatient treatment program, two thirds of patients relapse. After leaving a treatment facility, however, the relapse rate increases to 85%, with only 15% of people overcoming their addiction.
This diagram shows the process of becoming addicted, and then the subsequent stages of a recovery attempt. During the maintenance phase, most addicts will relapse back down to earlier stages. The maintenance phase will last the rest of an addicts life. At any point, and addict may be triggered back into addiction, even decades after leaving a treatment program.


The Site:


The site, located 15 minutes south of Carmel, California joins a region already known for its prestigious medical facilities. 
It is bound by Highway 1 to the South, Monastery Beach to the East, Point Lobos Reserve to the West, and the Pacific Ocean to the North



The Design:

At its most basic level, a rehabilitation facility is traditionally a medical facility with a communal living program. With this thesis, I am proposing the addition of community program space, to allow the public onto the site in select areas to attend fundraising events, or to hear lectures given by patients or doctors at the facility.


The parti of the project arranges buildings into a diagram representing a patient's journey throughout the facility. The buildings are aligned on two essential axis: One looking out over the seemingly infinite expanse of the Pacific Ocean, and the other facing inwards towards Monastery Beach, tying the site back to the community.


To protect the natural condition of the site, I have embedded the building masses into the grade, corresponding with the level of privacy required at each given program space. The clinic being the most private, and therefore embedded into the site at the lowest elevation. The communal living facility is a transitional space, somewhat embedded to the south, but opening up to the west. The community spaces are meant to be highly public, and take on a celebratory architectural form: being completely above grade and visible from Monastery Beach.
Arrival: welcoming patients to the facility
Communal Living: fostering connections
Meditation: looking out over the infinite
Detox: providing comfort and security
Family Visitation: a connection to the outside
Graduation: ring the bell, and return to society

Monastery Beach: an anchor in the community

The Section: Community Center and Living Facility