Paola Saade

I am a French - Lebanese designer passionate about architectural, informative and experimental design, and how they respond and are connected to human beings.

I tend to work according to situations and context, I am extremely curious on how can different experiences be created in a space and how its outcome could affect people, how to translate a message and impact through architecture. I am also intrigued by the human body and mind and how they react differently to the living and the static.

I express my work through hand-drawings, model making, experiencing and testing, mixed media collages and technical drawings.

Being freshly graduated from an interior architecture and design background in Lebanon, I was trained and submerged in the design world from a young age. For the last three years I spent my summer as an intern in different architectural firms, which helped clear out the path of my designer venture.

Isolation has become the new normal.

We instinctively, and were asked to, withdraw into some kind of bubble, both literally and metaphorically.

I’m interested in looking at how we could look inside this bubble and redesign the experience to be beneficial to our physical and psychological health.

Our energy, how do we spend it?... and how do we create it? Why do we spend it that way? How could our body and mind react in a more positive way no matter what situation we find ourselves in? How could spatial design address this to improve it?

Researchers suggest that syncing our daily schedules to our biological clocks is one input that would create positive consequences.

Another solution looks to meaningful connection with others – a sense of community.

What I am proposing is a program that integrates these concepts.

A group program that follows the optimal circadian rhythm cycle, where we would be immersed in a multi-sensory journey as we are recalibrated to our biological rhythm; The Experimental Circadian Hotel.

VISION BOARD — Bubble, the physical and the metaphorical one, why do we teenagers and adults are often trapped in them? Circadian rhythm (or cycle), a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep–wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours, proving that our physical and mental energy are triggered by our perception or light and smellscapes. What program, safety net or bubble should I create in order to have my guests follow a healthier more productive routine?

— How is our energy stimulated by light, colors and smellscapes? I looked at the different light intensities, which one of them would be the ones that would trigger our right body clock at the right time. I then added different aromas, that would also trigger the same signal, enhancing our mental state and feelings.

— What do we spend our energy on and why? A question I asked myself in order to understand which types of activities would be needed would be needed in this hotel.

— Deconstruction of a biological pathway to create a program that follows the most optimal circadian rhythm cycle. This diagram is a representation of the journey every guest will follow during this rehabilitation experience, hence the white line. The yellow lines represent the interconnection between each rooms.

— Vertical diagram observations; I thought the most interesting way to divide but also to connect these rooms was through a vertical indoor garden.

— This diagram describes how these connections between each rooms would work as they are part of the performance. The first and the last connection, representing the beginning and end of each day, start and end in the same room, which describes the idea of our cycle. from each floor, only one room is accessible, the colored one.

— Looking at how will these ramps be connected in section, I started playing with the existing grid lines, so I could start to imagine what would this vertical indoor garden would look like. I realized that there is something really interesting about the edge of the atrium and how this could start to integrate my design strategies.

— These design strategies came from my first experimental research, where I tested the connections and potential between the fluid/organic and the straight/solid shapes. The purpose was to understand how to work with these geometries and apply these rules to my design.

— Creating the organic shape according to the existing atrium and pillars, the new activities and which ones require a wider or narrower area.

THE CIRCADIAN CURTAIN

— Design intervention with the given site / 5 Pancras Square, King's Cross Central

THE JOURNEY

— You would enter the hotel during nighttime from the back of the building, which explains why I had to create the previously shown signals. I backed out the façade to create a private passage leading you to the main entrance.

— Main entrance view.

— You would then enter the bedrooms, where each bed is in their own niche and each niche is separated by a soundproof tensioned curtain. This curtain controls the contact between the natural light, coming from the façade and the controlled light coming from the circadian wall.

— The potential and size of each rooms depends on whether the circadian curtain is expended or shrunk; hence how the design strategies helped me define the spatial qualities.

— At 7AM, you should wake up and head to the therapy and yoga rooms, which are on the 3rd and 4th floors. As you can notice, the light intensity is much brighter and has a more colorful hue on the eyes which would wake you up gently.

— It is breakfast time, where each niche serves as an eating area. When this space is activated, the lighting scheme starts getting colder hues.

— After breakfast, you would have a walk or just lay down in the indoor gardens, where the greenery and the sound of water would calm you mind. This garden is only accessible from the main entrance, although while entering the building, you could still get a glimpse of it.

— From 9AM to 5PM, your therapeutic experience continues in the work spaces, which contain much colder hues then the previous ones, it is because you have to stay focused and awake.

— The circadian curtain is used as an extension for workshop tables, an isolation space for private desks and little music rooms in the performance area.

— The lighting scheme is always enhanced, in every activated rooms, with the second lighting projectors added between the metallic structures.

— From 5PM to 6PM, you would head to the underground gym area that is right under the indoor gardens. The spatial qualities of this room is interesting as it is defined by the upper floor. The sauna and steaming rooms are right under the garden’s water plans, which creates a soothing water reflection. The pool is dividing the rest of the space, creating an open plan workout space.

— The next activated rooms are the massage rooms, where the light hues go back to being warm and relaxing.

— Finally, after an entire day filled with nurturing and flourishing activities, you would head to the last activated space, for one last gathering before going back to bed.

Paola Saade

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Royal College of Art