Health and Nature: Neuroarchitecture for the Recovery of Historical Spaces and for Healing from Eating Disorders. The case of Villa Ortisi in Siracusa, Sicily.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is «a state of complete physical, psychological and social well-being and not simply the absence of disease or infirmity». In the context of planetary health, the urgent task is to provide deeper insight into the ways in which we develop relationships with people, how we feel, think and respond to the contemporary society. This includes the social, political, and economic underpinnings of society relatedness (and related psychological constructs) and its impact on vitality at all scales. This research focuses on some aspects of public health that concern eating disorders, which are on the rise during the pandemic, and the role of architecture to support this issue. It’s about trying to apply the principles of neuroarchitecture to design spaces and places of healing in contact with nature. The case study is a suburban villa, built in the early 1900s in Syracuse, Sicily, in an eclectic style. It was home for a short time, then primary school. It was long abandoned and closed. Today the city grew around her and a hospital was built just nearby. The health emergency, caused by the Covid-19, caused the need for physical and mental comfort. It triggered the idea of dwelling as a limit where even just a small open space can improve the mood. In this sense, the research aims to study the characteristics of spaces for people with serious food problems and propose design and technological solutions related to nature, separation from hospital, rehabilitation and re-education. The aim is to propose, guided by specialized doctors, a therapeutic stay to recognize the problems, of union with the community, of emotional connection shared through empathic, natural and integrable spaces.