ASYLUM Part 2 Project 2003 Deme Manolas University of Melbourne | Australia ASYLUMPsychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre, Austin HospitalAn asylum is a place for those displaced. This projects questions what happens when 'displacement' occurs in the mind; where does one 'physically' go for refuge? The project tests the notion of boundary in the 'new' asylum for young adults with psychosis. A healthy subject is said to be dependent on exchanges with their environment and the ability to control the extent to which their surroundings influence them. In this project a series of experimental spaces are designed that prompt a subjective (that is a patient specific) analysis into the environmental stimuli of that individual. Patients are able to test and explore their spaces as a healing environment. Boundary is considered at the level of the building's setting in the landscape, the material of the walls and the horizontal plane of the floor. Architectural devices allow the control of light, ventilation, acoustics and views both horizontally and vertically. It is an attempt to de-institutionalise the subject with a new control selection over their immediate environment and new controlled interactions with neighboring spaces. Programatically, this project adopts a 'prevention and intervention' approach to medical science that is multidisciplinary, and may point to the 'new' asylum. This project is an exquisite exploration of the architectural response to the concept of asylum. The project does not take a heroic psotition but provides an environment that offers a range of stimuli. These allow those who are displaced in society a variety of internal experineces that can be tailored to suit patient needs. The delicate nature of the design response refrers directly to the precarious nature of the healing contained within; an open refuge.