Architecture student and faculty team create a space for restoration and refuge in the Student Health and Wellness Building
Image
This past summer Assistant Professor of Architecture Katie Stranix and a team of student researchers were given the opportunity to design and build a what she describes as a “refuge space” — a place where UVA students can take a break, relax and recharge. The project came about when Stranix met with Christopher Holstege, Senior Associate Vice President for Student Health and Wellness, to explore potential opportunities for collaboration.
Stranix’s longstanding design research, with partner and fellow Assistant Professor of Architecture JT Bachman, and their architectural practice, Office of Things, has focused on immersive spaces. These spaces have created user-selected sensory experiences that allow for individuals to choose preferences in lighting, color, and sound—and are meant to provide a retreat within everyday building types, such as office buildings or schools. Their designs, while small in scale (the size of a room), are made to feel more expansive and immersive than their actual size.
Interested in further exploring how design can transform everyday spaces, while also enhancing the physical, mental and social health of inhabitants, Stranix welcomed Holstege’s invitation to tour the Student Health and Wellness Building at UVA where she had an opportunity to see their Reflection Rooms located in its Well-Being Suite on the first floor.
“During the visit, I asked if he would be open to us experimenting with one of the Reflection Rooms and he was fully supportive of the idea,” said Stranix. “He emphasized that the building was intentionally designed to encourage cross-departmental collaboration and to support a wide range of research initiatives related to health and wellness.”
Image
Stranix and Bachman assembled a team to bring the project to life, including student researchers Nina Accousti (BSArch ’26) and Avery Edson (MArch ’25). Early in the process, the team considered how to incorporate the calming effects of proprioceptive input, drawing inspiration from the Squeeze Machine and squeeze chairs developed by Temple Grandin and Wendy Jacob. These concepts led them to experiment with softer materials, especially for the seating elements.
Their project also drew inspiration from a popular local destination for students seeking outdoor recreation and relaxation, Humpback Rocks. The natural formation, a massive greenstone outcropping near the peak of Humpback Mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a place for reflection and rest. Humpback’s natural forms, which lend themselves to sitting or lying down, while viewing the landscape and sky at a summit elevation of 3,080 feet, were considered when designing the space. The team’s reflection room is an encompassing enclosure with an opening to the ceiling, enhanced by illumination that can be set to various intensities and hues.
Image
“We chose Humpback because it is nearby and a fairly well-known hike that is accessible for most students,” Accousti said. “We felt it was important to connect to a local example of restorative spaces in nature as we embarked on the journey to create an architectural restorative space.”
The design also draws from prospect and refuge theory, an architectural concept geographer Jay Appleton coined in the 1970s that suggests people feel safer with their backs protected and a clear view outward, which has been adapted to architectural environments. The theory inspired the reflection room’s curved, cocoon-like structure.
Image
“The space offers open-ended seating within the niche where you can choose to sit on the edge or curl up within the form,” Stranix said.
The design team partnered with a fabrication team over the summer to build and install the construct, which was made from 61 sheets of plywood, precisely cut on a CNC machine with material efficiency in mind. Edson, Paul Bourdin (MArch ’25), and Catherine Kazel (MArch ’27) worked with the School of Architecture FabLab to help realize the design from research and initial sketches to digital and physical model iterations, to final full-scale prototyping, and fabrication.
Installed over several weeks over the summer, and now being used by students from across Grounds who are visiting the Student Health and Wellness Building, the team is eager to learn from individual reactions about the user experience. They are currently working with Student Health and Wellness to figure out the best way to gather and respond to student feedback. While much thought and consideration went into the design decisions, the reflection room is also meant to offer those wanting to relax a variety of sensory options to choose from — and to enjoy the space if different ways.
Image
“I would encourage students to go check it out and discover how it can work for them,” Kazel said. “Part of what is so fun and interesting about architecture to me is the unintentional ways users interact with designed spaces and objects, so use it how you want.”
Team
Faculty Leads
Katie Stranix and JT Bachman
Student Researchers, Design and Fabrication
Nina Accousti (BSArch ’26)
Paul Bourdin (MArch ’25)
Avery Edson (MArch ’25)
Catherine Kazel (MArch ’27)
Fabrication Support
The University of Virginia School of Architecture FabLab,
with special thanks to Melissa Goldman and Trevor Kemp
In Partnership with—
UVA Student Health and Wellness,
with special thanks to Christopher Holstege and Chuck Walcott
