Grace Newbigging | Growing With The City
Interior and Spatial Design student Grace Newbigging is looking at the benefits of horticultural therapy for young people in Edinburgh with her degree show project ‘Growing with the City’.
The project transforms a disused red brick building near Edinburgh’s Fountain Park into an indoor urban garden that will facilitate the active use of horticultural therapy primarily for young people aged 16-35 years old.
Throughout Grace’s design, active participation is encouraged, with space assigned for planting, growing, maintenance and therapy sessions to help young people use nature to improve their mental health.
There’s space for one-to-one and group socialising and there are private spaces for individuals to take time out and experience the tranquillity of the garden away from the day-to-day pressures of life.
Grace was inspired to design the facility after seeing the growing importance plants, and specifically the act of looking after them, took on during the Covid-19 pandemic as a form of self-care.
Her design raises awareness about the tangible and accessible forms of horticultural therapy and shines a spotlight on its ability as a preventative course of action that can be taken before prescribed medical help.
Leeloo Moreau | The Inner Child and its friend Totoro
Many people have fond memories of the games they played when they were a child. But what if people were encouraged to embrace their inner child in later life to create even more?
Inspired by Hayao’s animation, My Neighbour Totoro, Leeloo Moreau has created an immersive interactive treasure hunt for 40+ year-olds to do just that.
Set in Edinburgh’s Craigmillar Castle, participants will explore the building and experience different atmospheres and pathways, collecting objects, tackling mazes and solving riddles along the way.
They’ll see the journey from the viewpoint of a 5 year-old, just like in the My Neighbour Totoro film, with their own journey and experience within the treasure hunt dependent on the route the child takes.
A space in the facility called Ascension will allow participants to rest and reflect on what they’ve experienced and discovered both as a child, and when they’ve embraced their inner child as an adult. Therapy sessions will also be offered to anyone who would like to delve further into their past.
Cyrielle Dabere | Pluvial
The condition called synaesthesia is often described as a ‘union of the senses’ whereby two or more of the five main senses that are normally experienced separately are involuntarily and automatically joined together.
Despite many people experiencing it, many don’t know an awful lot about it.
That’s why student Cyriella Dabere is tackling the condition in her degree show project, ‘Pluvial’.
In her design, Cyrielle transforms Glenogle Baths in Stockbridge into three different spaces, allowing visitors to undergo a sensory journey.
Pluvial looks at the relationship a synaesthete has specifically with rain. In the building, rain technology brings the outside indoors, with a suspended pond creating a centrepiece for the space.
As visitors explore the building, their senses come into play one-by-one. Whether it be viewing rain, feeling rain, smelling rain or hearing rain, the building creates a visual and interactive experience that normalises synaesthesia and helps people talk about the condition.