Mind model: Rehab centre connects people

Tokyo – A rehabilitation centre for people suffering from mental illness uses design to provide a new model for a traditionally restrained environment.

The Sowa Unit, completed by Tokyo architect Kensuke Watanabe, is a two-storey building whose layout stimulates and encourages physical movement and visual connection between the patients. Opening up the unit via a staggered formation of six concrete bands, Watanabe forgoes the typically restrictive and protective environment normally associated with such facilities.

Among a host of other revamped utilities, mental health units, often overlooked through contention, are also receiving intelligently designed updates that help to stimulate recuperation.