Can architecture become part of the healing process?

Antillas is a Mental Health Healing Centre proposed for Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, exploring how architecture can contribute to a more dignified, open and human approach to mental healthcare.

Developed by architecture students Alexander Bello, Kiara Santana and Alina Bueno during Design IX at PUCMM, the project emerged from research into mental healthcare accessibility, social stigma and the need for environments capable of supporting both psychological wellbeing and rehabilitation.

Rather than conceiving the centre as an isolated clinical institution, Antillas proposes a therapeutic environment built around nature, community, privacy, autonomy and human interaction.

The project received First Place at ADOACERO 2021 and subsequently represented the Dominican Republic at the international ALACERO 2021 competition, where it received an Honourable Mention.

Architecture as Part of Healing

The conceptual foundation of Antillas was informed by architect Stefan Lundin’s principles for healing architecture, translated into a series of spatial objectives.

The building should feel welcoming rather than institutional.

Patients should have access to private and individually controllable rooms.

Small-scale spaces should provide opportunities for rest.

The relationship between patients and caregivers should remain direct and accessible.

And, fundamentally, patients should maintain a connection with climate, vegetation and the exterior environment.

Together, these principles informed an architecture intended to evoke health, dignity and safety rather than confinement.

An Architecture of the Antilles

The identity of the project emerged from another question:

What should a mental health centre in the Caribbean feel like?

Rather than adopting a generic institutional language, Antillas draws from the characteristics of Antillean architectureand reinterprets them through a contemporary vocabulary.

Organic geometries, permeability, rounded corners, pastel tones and inclined roofs reference familiar qualities of Caribbean architecture without reproducing them literally.

At the same time, the architecture responds directly to the environmental conditions of its site.

The terrain is characterised by dramatic topography and abundant vegetation, with views towards the surrounding landscape, the Atlantic Ocean and the Isabel de Torres mountain area.

Architecture and context therefore become part of the same strategy.

Fragmentation as a Design Concept

The formal development of Antillas is based on the idea of fragmentation.

The Caribbean itself is fragmented — geographically into islands and culturally into multiple identities — while simultaneously connected by the sea.

This condition became an architectural metaphor.

Instead of concentrating the programme within a single institutional volume, the centre is divided into a series of interconnected buildings positioned across the landscape.

The design process began by identifying the site’s environmental conditions and critical axes. Programme areas were then distributed according to the logic of fragmentation, before the architectural language was developed through the Antillean gestures identified during the research.

The result is a campus-like environment where architecture is experienced as a sequence of buildings, gardens, pathways and transitional spaces.

Designing a Healing Environment

Research into therapeutic environments informed both interior and exterior interventions.

Strategies included creating public and transitional areas, working with different scales of space, balancing built areas with landscape, introducing natural light and creating environments intended to feel welcoming rather than clinical.

Green spaces become essential components of the programme.

Gardens, rest areas and therapeutic orchards surround the buildings and act as connectors between them.

Patients can participate in and interact with these spaces, creating a continuous relationship between patient, caregiver and environment.

Nature is not treated as the scenery surrounding the architecture.

It becomes part of the architecture of care.

Two Levels of Care

The programme is broadly organised into two areas:

Outpatient Care & Rehabilitation
and
Hospitalisation & Residential Care.

The outpatient component occupies the first two buildings and their associated public plaza.

Consultation rooms, rehabilitation spaces, research areas, diagnostics, educational workshops, a café and administrative spaces are arranged primarily at ground level.

The flexibility provided by the steel structural system allows for open and adaptable floor plans, while landscaped transitional areas connect the different programmes.

Privacy Through Topography

Hospitalisation occupies the higher levels of the site.

This position provides greater privacy while taking advantage of the landscape and panoramic views.

Upon entering the residential component, patients encounter a large exterior terrace that acts as the central social space of the third building.

From here, users can access occupational therapy rooms, a gym and dining areas.

A fourth building is organised around a central garden. Spaces radiate from this landscaped core, while ramps connect to the upper level containing individual, double and triple bedrooms.

The organisation creates different degrees of privacy without completely isolating patients from community life.

Building With the Landscape

The architecture responds to the site’s pronounced topography through three principal terraces.

Instead of flattening the terrain, the project adapts to it.

This allows different levels of the centre to maintain panoramic views and direct relationships with vegetation while creating a gradual sequence through the site.

Service and maintenance areas are partially embedded into the terrain, allowing operational functions to remain accessible without dominating the patient’s experience.

The landscape therefore influences not only the atmosphere of the project but also its organisation.

Steel as Architecture

Steel is not treated merely as the project’s structural solution.

It becomes part of its architectural identity.

A system of expressive V- and Y-shaped steel columns establishes hierarchy while allowing larger spans, flexible floor plans and elevated walkways.

These structural elements enable the fragmented buildings to remain visually open and permeable while facilitating movement throughout the complex.

The exposed structure is intentionally integrated into the interior experience.

Finished in soft tones and combined with large glazed surfaces, the steel works alongside natural light and landscape to create environments intended to communicate openness, neutrality and calm.

Structure becomes visible without becoming aggressive.

Structure & Performance

The structural system responds to both the architectural concept and the challenging terrain.

Continuous concrete foundations support pedestals that transition into inclined steel members, helping transfer loads axially while limiting bending across larger spans.

W-section beams support metal deck floor and roof systems, contributing to structural rigidity and resilience.

In the hospitalisation building, technical flooring accommodates the geometry of inclined structural conditions while providing space for mechanical and service distribution.

Retaining systems allow parts of the programme to become integrated into the terrain.

The result is a structural strategy where engineering, architectural expression and spatial flexibility operate together.

Environmental Strategies

Antillas also integrates passive and active environmental considerations.

The permeability of the buildings encourages cross ventilation, helping improve thermal comfort.

Inclined roofs incorporate solar panels and rainwater collection systems, while green roofs contribute to thermal performance and environmental quality.

Large openings maintain visual connections with the landscape and increase access to daylight.

These strategies reinforce one of the project’s central principles: maintaining a continuous relationship between the patient and the exterior environment.

Dignity Through Design

Antillas ultimately proposes a different image for mental healthcare architecture.

Instead of an environment defined by isolation and institutional character, the project creates a sequence of spaces for interaction, privacy, therapy, nature and everyday life.

Architecture cannot replace treatment.

But it can influence the conditions in which treatment takes place.

Through landscape, materiality, structure, light and spatial organisation, Antillas explores how the built environment can contribute to a greater sense of normality, autonomy, safety and dignity.

A healing environment begins by designing for the person, not the institution.

Project
Antillas — Mental Health Healing Centre

Location
Puerto Plata · Dominican Republic

Students
Alexander Bello · Kiara Santana · Alina Bueno

Programme
Mental Healthcare · Outpatient Care · Rehabilitation · Hospitalisation · Occupational Therapy · Research · Education

Concept
Antillean Architecture · Fragmentation · Healing Environment

Structure
Steel · V & Y Structural Columns · Metal Deck Systems

Topics
Mental Health Architecture · Healing Environments · Caribbean Architecture · Landscape · Steel Design · Wellbeing

Recognition
First Place · ADOACERO 2021
Honourable Mention · ALACERO 2021

Course
Design IX · EAD–PUCMM

Professor
Sarah Tió

Type
Academic Student Project