A CORPORATE RETREAT CENTER MIANGO-JOS Integrating architecture with nature to enhance restoration
A CORPORATE RETREAT CENTER MIANGO-JOS Integrating architecture with nature to enhance restoration
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Date
2006-12
Authors
MAIRABO, RUTH RAKIYA
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Abstract
Corporate executives all over the world are under a lot of stress due to increasing
competitiveness in the workplace, traveling and family demands. Stress costs
companies in terms of employee’s health and reduced output and efficiency.
Companies have realized the benefits of sending their executives on paid holidays to
rest, recuperate and be rejuvenated; especially in natural peaceful environments,
totally removed from the working environment.
Mayo (1958) says that to be at rest an executive must be removed from the
working environment but to deal with stress he must be exposed to at worst a
simulated working environment. A corporate retreat is an ideal opportunity to manage
stress because it is an environment without the distractions of everyday life that aims
at increasing motivation by stimulating and rejuvenating the body and mind while
allowing a corporate group to have exclusive use of a facility for team building,
brainstorming, prioritizing, strategic planning and more.
Various theories on the restoration of an individual are based on the exposure to
nature, natural elements and processes. Kaplan and Kaplan (1989) in looking for a
setting that helps people function better developed a model called the reasonable person
model. This model is based on the framework that people are more reasonable,
cooperative, helpful satisfied and constructive when the environment satisfies their basic
informational needs. Their research indicates that aesthetic natural settings not only give
pleasure and are satisfying to experience, they also: support human functioning, provide
a context in which information can be managed effectively, permit people to move
about and explore with comfort and confidence, and provide for recovery from mental
fatigue. To them nature is seen as a restorative environment and an effective stress
reducer because it provides a kind of cognitive quiet, necessitating fewer decisions
based on external demands.
The main function of a retreat environment is restoration, whether mental
physical or otherwise. A natural environment is said to be a restorative one; this thesis
aims to enhance the restorative elements of nature found in retreat environments
primarily through the integration of nature and architecture.
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
NIGERIA
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF A
MASTERS DEGREE OF SCIENCE (M.Sc) IN ARCHITECTURE.
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE,
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA.
NIGERIA
DECEMBER, 2006
Keywords
CORPORATE,, RETREAT,, CENTER,, MIANGO,, JOS,, Integrating,, architecture,, nature,, enhance,, restoration,