Project Description

Problem Identification: University campuses operate under continuous academic pressure — deadlines, comparison, performance, and visibility. While institutions provide spaces for productivity, there is no spatial infrastructure for emotional decompression. Suppressed stress accumulates and affects cognitive clarity and well-being. This condition extends beyond universities into workplaces and dense urban environments. The project responds by introducing a compact architectural system dedicated to controlled emotional release.

Vision: To design a 10m³ sensory-regulated chamber that absorbs and modulates emotional intensity through spatial containment, controlled privacy, and full five-sense engagement.

Goal: To create a decompression environment where individuals can cry, speak, or sit in silence without fear of exposure — alone or in shared presence — while their senses are gently regulated to reduce stress.

Spatial & Functional Strategy: The structure is a squashed glass dome, generating strong horizontal containment and intimate enclosure. The curved geometry eliminates corners, reducing acoustic reflection and spatial tension. It is surrounded by a shallow water channel that acts as a psychological threshold. Crossing water signals transition, helping the mind detach from institutional surroundings.

Two users enter from opposite sides. A central opaque glass septum divides the space into two chambers. This reflects the principle of social buffering — stress levels decrease when another person is present without direct visual confrontation. If both consent, the partition gradually becomes translucent or transparent, allowing controlled emotional connection.

When the pod is occupied, water begins to flow over the exterior glass surface. This flowing water performs a critical dual function:

* Visual Privacy: The moving water layer diffuses light and distorts visibility from outside. The dome becomes blurred and opaque externally, reducing self-consciousness and performance anxiety.

* Acoustic Privacy: The continuous water sound creates white-noise masking, preventing crying or raised voices from being clearly heard outside while minimizing internal echo.

Five-Sense Utilization

The project deliberately activates all five senses as tools of emotional regulation:

* Sight: Filtered upward sky view encourages vertical gaze, associated with cognitive reset. The water layer softens external visual stimuli, reducing overstimulation.

* Hearing: Water flow masks sound and prevents emotional amplification.

* Touch: Interior walls are scratch- and write-sensitive, allowing users to physically release tension. Tactile engagement supports somatic stress discharge by converting emotion into motion.

* Smell: Subtle scent diffusion activates calming responses in the limbic system, stabilizing mood.

* Speech: The acoustically contained dome enables safe verbal expression without external exposure.

The thermochromic floor records temporary body-heat footprints, leaving fading traces of previous occupants. These imprints reduce perceived isolation and reinforce collective emotional presence.

Material & Modularity: Laminated tempered glass panels form the squashed dome. A lightweight structural frame supports a closed-loop water system. Touch-responsive glass technology and thermochromic flooring are integrated within a prefabricated modular unit that can be replicated across campuses or public institutions.

Influence of the 10m³ Constraint: The structure is designed as a squashed spherical dome (spherical cap) with a 3.6 m diameter and 1.5 m internal height, generating a total enclosed volume of approximately 9.39 cubic meters, remaining within the 10m³ limit.