REVIVING THE BIMARISTAN: THE DESIGN FOR A WOMEN'S MENTAL WELLNESS CENTER

Abstract

This thesis proposes reviving the bimaristan as a contemporary architectural and ethical framework for a women-centered mental wellness center in post-conflict Sudan. Responding to limited mental health provision, social stigma, and culturally mismatched institutional models, the research draws on Islamic healing traditions and bimaristan principles as an epistemological and spatial resource for contemporary design thinking—not as forms to replicate, but as ethical-spatial precedents. Through a design-led inquiry informed by historical precedent analysis and contemporary trauma informed and evidence-informed design research, the thesis redefines the built environment as part of care rather than a neutral container. It demonstrates how spatial organization—courtyards, thresholds, and legible privacy gradients—can shape emotional regulation, belonging, and willingness to seek support, particularly where institutional atmospheres reinforce stigma and fear. Consequently, the research contributes, first, a functional spatial model that supports women’s trauma recovery through protected residential healing and carefully managed visitor/outpatient access; and second, an architectural framework showing how culturally grounded healing ethics can generate contemporary wellness typologies that remain operationally realistic and climate responsive in Sudan and comparable post-conflict contexts.

Date of Award	2026
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Islamic Studies