UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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Author: search.filters.author.Derenick, DavidSubject: search.filters.subject.Health Sciences, Rehabilitation and Therapy

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    Architecture in Defense of Dignity
    (2008) Derenick, David; Noonan, Peter V; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Architecture can help people defend dignity when they most need it. This thesis investigates three areas in which a place may offer support: identity, or personhood; liberty, or control over environment; and vitality, or sense of purpose. The thesis proposes a design for an inpatient rehabilitation center, for people who have suffered from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Challenges to dignity are not limited to health care settings, but TBI highlights these challenges by impairing a patient's own defenses and straining a family's ability to cope. Among proposed architectural elements are rooms allowing self-expression yet offering respite; luminous shafts providing for control of daylight, fresh air, and information; and empowering dining and garden spaces. Rehabilitation is transitional, occurring after acute hospital treatment and ideally leading to a return home. A site in Philadelphia near hospital campuses, but rooted in a residential neighborhood, is an ideal for a place of dignified transition.