Ellen Yorath

The Connection Centre

Trichotillomania is a common yet underdiagnosed, chronic mental health disorder where sufferers are unable to control urges to pull out their own hair. There is currently no treatment centre in the world which specialises on Trichotillomania, thus stressing the essentiality of valuable expert treatment. The Connection Centre intends to provide a multifaceted treatment retreat, to guide a community of sufferers through the initial stages of a holistic healing process and give them the knowledge into how to cope with the disorder. The retreat will cover physical and mental treatment, offering a bespoke Intralace system, specifically designed for alleviating the symptoms of Trichotillomania, and advanced counselling and therapy services, to help cope with the severe mental health side of things.

The adaptive reuse of Oak Villa farm pledges an empathetic design which boasts the original structure. The main design intervention focuses on the promotion of user wellbeing, combining principles of neuroarchitecture with applications that ensure user privacy. The alteration process is analysed thoroughly so the building is effortlessly highlighted by the contrasting yet passive contemporary design. Celebrating hand-crafted design and historical features are associated with improving user wellbeing, therefore it is critical that the approach towards the building is respectful to the principles of neuroarchitecture also. For sufferers of Trichotillomania, any exposure can be extremely unsettling, so creating a design which enables user control and comfort is the designer’s responsibility to rectify. Otherwise, the retreat cannot fulfil the vital proposal of a relaxing, healing getaway.

Designed by Ellen Yorath.