FAR FROM THE

MADDING CROWD
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 CONTENT

Chapter 1.................................................................................................. 03
Chapter 2.................................................................................................. 07
Chapter 3.................................................................................................. 12
Chapter 4.................................................................................................. 14

He gave the little

Wealth he had,
To build a House for
Fools and Mad;
And shew’d by one
satyric Touch,
No Nation wanted it so
much

Fig. 1. London, second Bethlem Hospital in Morefields 1675-1676, Architect: Robert Hooke

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 ~CHAPTER I~

Fig. 2. Caritas, Villa placida eetzaal

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 ~CHAPTER I~

CONTEXT
The Caritas psychiatric center was built between 1908-1911 in form of different
pavilions scattered in a green field in the outskirts of Melle, Ghent. At the beginning
it was a facility only for women, and later it served men as well. The separation of
the departments from one another was a new concept at the time and proved to
be successful, because of the privacy it provided for the patients. Architecturally, all
the pavilions were coherent and formed their own quirky style. Nowadays it is still
functioning, but most of the building built in 1911 were destroyed and rebuilt exactly
in the same plot.

Fig. 3. PC Caritas, Melle 1911 buildings

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 ~CHAPTER I~

This process of demolition and rebuilding from scratch to host the new standards
in mental healthcare began in the 50s and still goes on. The new buildings were
conceived as solitary units and breaking therefore the unitary feeling of the campus.
In 2014 after changing the clinics management, the new administration noticing the
qualities of the remaining buildings tried to save on of the pavilions (Sint Josef) that
was on its way to being demolished.

Fig. 4. PC Caritas, Melle now

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 ~CHAPTER I~

The demolition process was suspended, and the situation gave rise to new debate:
how would a semi destroyed building fit the functions of a hospital. These questions
led to calls for entries in a public competition where Architecten De Vylder Vinck
Taillieu won. The much-praised intervention of Advvt gave a new perspective to how
a building can be saved.
Even though the demolition process was stopped for Sint Josef Pavilion and for the
entrance building, the idea to demolish other pavilions remains and this time it
concerns the newer buildings built in the 90s. The long dark corridors and the much
clinical environments are still seen as a punishment place, rather than a curing place.

Are you renovating the

Sint-Jozef pavilion?
— No.
But you’re redoing the
roof? — No, we’re not.
Then what’s happening
with this building? — I
don’t know either.

https://bavo.biz/design-
your-symptom

Fig. 5. PC Caritas, Sint Josef building by Addvt

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 ~CHAPTER II~

Fig. 6. PC Caritas, pavillon notre dame refectorie

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 ~CHAPTER II~

QUESTIONS

How has the mental health care changed throughout the history?

Fig. 7. Amsterdam Doll Huys, 1562

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 ~CHAPTER II~

How can we adapt the buildings we have to the ever-changing care models of
mental healthcare?

Fig. 8. Sint Jans Hospital Brügge, Jan Beerblock painting 1778

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 ~CHAPTER II~

How quickly has changed the life span of a hospital in the last decades?

Fig. 9- OMA Hospital of the future, 2018-ongoing

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 ~CHAPTER II~

How can we make an environment feel safe and caring rather than polished and
clinical?

Although it is the space

with no function in
which it can make it
avoidable in a simple
form strangely, children
play with the place like
the primitive man who
interprets landscape
freely and lives very
well in it. They hide
in a place behind
something, show up,
relax at back, and run
about here and there.
By being separated and
being connected are
compatible, freedom
and inconvenient
live together in the
meantime.

Fig. 10. Sou Fujimoto Children’s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 2006

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 ~CHAPTER III~

Fig. 11. Caritas, chateau jardin d hiver

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 ~CHAPTER III~

PURPOSE

How different would it be if the pavilions of Caritas were never destroyed, rather
adapted to fit the new standards of mental health care? How would this campus
look like?

You’ve created a lot

of imaginary worlds.
There’s the imaginary
New York in The
Royal Tenenbaums,
the imaginary world
in this film, and The
Life Aquatic seems to
have its own imaginary
species. What draws
you to that?
In a way, it’s just
about making a space
to work in. The real
answer is just because
I like to.

Wes Anderson on The

Grand Budapest Hotel
Fig. 12. Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson 2014

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 ~CHAPTER III~

An imaginary scenario, where the quirky buildings of Caritas still exist; madness is
approached madfully and a lunatic asylum turns into a luna park asylum.

Van der Goes entered

a religious community
called the Red Cloister
and afterwards became
ill, tormented by feel-
ings of failure, worth-
lessness and sin.

Fig. 12. Madness of Hugo Van de Goes, Emile Wautrers 1872

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 ~CHAPTER IV~

Fig. 13. Caritas, Reception area

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 ~CHAPTER IV~

REFERENCES

“The Birth of the Clinic” Michel Foucault;1976

“Das europäische Hospital von der Spätantike bis 1800” Dieter Jetter; 1986

Project Office Madlove landscape http://www.projectsoffice.co/projects#/

madlandscape/
http://www.madlove.org.uk/

“Terug naar de toekomst 1808-1908-2008. 100 jaar psychiatrisch centrum Caritas.

200 jaar psychiatrische zorg door de Zusters van Liefde van J.M.” Johan Demets;
2008

“The Hospital of the future” OMA Ongoing project

https://oma.eu/projects/hospital-of-the-future

It ain’t no bad thing

to need a safe place to
go mad. The problem
is that a lot of mental
health hospitals are
more punishment
than love… they
need some Madlove.

Is it possible to go
mad in a positive
way? How would you
create a safe place in
which to do so? If you
designed your own
asylum, what would it
be like?

Fig. 14. Madlove project, Project Office in collaboration with Benjamin Kolowsky, artists The vacuum cleaner
and Hanna Hull 2016

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Fig. 15. Caritas, Sleeping hall

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