Student: Natalie Bezarashvili
Professor: David Bostanashvili
Theme: Stultifera Navis - Psychiatric clinic
Master's thesis project, 2015.
“Confined on the ship, from which there is no escape, the madman is delivered to the river with its thousand arms, the sea with its thousand roads, to that great uncertainty external to everything. He is a prisoner in the midst of what is the freest, the openest of routes: bound fast at the infinite crossroads. He is the Passenger par excellence: that is, the prisoner of the passage.“ - Michel Foucault.
The main concepts of the project are space of folly, path and labyrinth. The design practice is substituted by narrative practice.
How to make a madhouse? We start with an old drawing of a plan; fold it; add green patios along the hallways; add ambiguous spaces to known functional rooms; introduce waterchannel into main courtyard; add a ship to water; on holidays 'our madmen' take over the ship and get a taste of freedom; they will sail to shores unknown, where the resort towers of the clinic rise. After vacation 'our madmen' sail back to main building awaiting new journeys.
The famous engraving and Bosch's painting of Ship of Fools are main paradigms of the project. The research focuses on critical analysis of Michel Foucault's book "Madness and civilization".
stulfitera navis - ship of fools is a literary inspiration of the middle ages. There, at sea a ship sails, commanded by the madmen. They are free from all forces that try to institutionalize, enclose or cure them.
Award: III pace winner. V International festival of architecture, engeneering and design schools. Rome. (2015).