This thesis investigates how spatial environments can lessen stress and enable rehabilitation of health for post-deployment military families through the design of a recreational retreat situated within the southern Ohio wilderness. The hypothesis derived from sources in Environmental Psychology, Biophilic Theory and architectural patterns, states that interaction with nature is important for physical, psychological and physiological health and recovery.
The military operations over the past decade have created an influx of individuals and families coping with a myriad of issues related to combat and deployment. Constant high levels of stress in this population have contributed to a disintegration of health within the family unit. The magnitude and variation of these resultant familial issues are different for every person; inasmuch, no single proposal (architectural or otherwise) can address the idiosyncratic needs of each individual. This thesis chooses a broader lens to respond to non-medical concerns shared by many post-deployment military families.
Using the hypothesis derived from sources in Environmental Psychology, Biophilic Theory and architectural patterns, I will design an outdoor recreational retreat, to engage the stress symptoms of post-deployment families, with the goal of creating a spatial environment that can help a family and its individuals to recover from deployment and reestablish their family unit through interaction in nature and with each other.