Lee McIlroy
Old Town Community Centre
Wellbeing Block : Individual Waiting Area
The proposal aims to create a typology which becomes the fulcrum of the community through a programme based on individual, collective and collaborative scale.
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The Old Town Community centre looks to reinstate the Ancient Greek Asclepeion typology back into society. These healing temples were a product of early Hippocratic medicine and were a vehicle for a holistic healthcare model. Their philosophy of 'healthy mind, healthy body" lead to a public programme of baths, creative spaces, markets intertwined with private consultation rooms, where physicians would carry out treatments.
Slotted within the UNESCO World Heritage site within Edinburgh's Old Town, the brief searches for an inclusive well-being programme through a collective and collaborative arts based accommodation with individual healthcare spaces.
The World Heath Organisation recognises that discrimination stigma and neglect are responsible for two-thirds of people not seeking the treatment available. Their website mentions how "where there's no understanding, there is neglect." The Old Town community centre looks to promote a level of understanding within its populace.
"In every bit of honest writing in the world, there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and almost nearly always leads to love. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always, that base theme. Try to understand each other." - John Steinbeck, 1938.