The Effects of
Architecture
on a Psychiatric Office Setting

by
Nicholas John Mabry Roberts

For
Dr. Jon Daniel Davey
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Architecture 314i
Fall 2013 My profession will be in the field of mental health, Psychiatry to be more specific. A Psychiatrist is typically a medical doctor (MD) and is someone who examines, diagnoses, and treats mental disorders with medications. Although a psychiatrist specializes in mental health, they could also, in theory, practice as a medical doctor. Many options open for someone in the field of psychiatry and therefore, they have many options for work settings.
In my profession I will most likely spend some time working in a hospitals’ psychiatric ward. I may also work in a prison, a psychiatric hospital, or a combination of both. I could just choose to work as a typical Medical Doctor rather than choosing to work in psychology. I could do both if I chose and if it was required. But ultimately, the goal is to have my own psychiatric clinic to practice out of.
The perfect setting for practicing psychiatry is obviously not a psych ward of a hospital or a prison. It is not a place that has all white walls, blue floors, fluorescent lights, barred windows, and strait jackets. It is not a building that is confusing, poorly built, poorly lit, offensive in any way, or just plain ugly. I believe a psychiatric facility should be built in a way that makes patients feel comfortable, at home, welcome, and in control. The best way to describe the perfect setting for a facility that guarantees an optimal psychiatric recovery would be to describe it using design criteria.
First the building would have, “functional conformance,” meaning it would have the proper components to make the function [psychiatric practice] possible (Davey, V.). This would include comfortable chairs, in order to make