The Sensatorium

Abstract

The sensatorium is a 3,500m2 healing clinic for the six senses—taste, touch, sight, smell, sound, and atmosphere—within the historic healthcare city of Geel, BE. Located adjacent to Sint-Dimpnakerk—a fourteenth century Catholic church dedicated to the resident saint of mental illness—the sensatorium consists of five courtyards—two within the existing Gasthuis—a seventeenth century monastic hospice— across the street from four courtyards within the main structure . Containing sixty—twelve representative apostles for each of the five senses—boarding rooms borders are encouraged to interact with the other senses, residents of Geel, and city. The taste courtyard within the Gasthuis—that previously used land for food production— grows the holyberry—a white strawberry that tastes unrecognizable—along with companion plants within the month of October. The public beholds the holy site where the holyberry can be tasted within one for the five taste bud rooms—sweet, sour, salt, unami, and bitter—along with four other produce cultivated to heighten the taste buds within the Blue Banana. Individuals walk through the taste bud enfilade black rooms highlighting the food with palette cleansing rooms in between. Within the second courtyard of the Gasthuis, white liliesthe symbol of the patron Saint Dymna and purity—and its pairing notes are surrounded by four smell therapy rooms—clove, rose, eucalyptus, and lemon—that infuse each of the black enfilade rooms. Across in the main building, the brick simple facade shows no indication of the three crystal shaped courtyards to intensify the emphasis of the senses. Three entrance doorways lead to the courtyards where the public can meander to the other courtyards and healing rooms. The sight court is surrounded by mirrored columns reflecting colorful plants and refracting a perimeter of water. The three sight healing rooms—red light, dim light, and low contrasting colors that blur—are turned on by a switch by the individual. The touch courtyard opens directly to the borders where everyone can walk around the garden of different tactile plants—exaggerated during abscission—and encouraged to interact and touch. The sound courtyard has interior space that separates the access to border rooms from the zen courtyard where individuals listen to the sound of raking and fountain surrounded by sound barrier composite panels to remove the noise of the city and focus within the sensatorium. The sound healing rooms—nature sounds, white noises, fractal sounds, and multi-sonic—are connected to the sight and touch healing rooms by smooth stone space for a moment of silence. At the end of their day, all sixty borders come together for a multi-sensorial meal in the dining room looking out to the sixth sense garden—an extension of Sint-Dimpnakerk’s forest cemetery.