Being mentally healthy means maintaining inner balance, utilizing your potential, coping with stress, and acting creatively in the environment in which we live.
In Slovenia, the burden of mental disorders is particularly pronounced, manifested in the high prevalence of depression and anxiety and one of the highest suicide rates in Europe. The mental health care system remains under-resourced and spatially unevenly distributed, which severely limits accessibility, especially in rural contexts. Additional challenges, such as stigma, social inequalities, and the absence of community-based forms of support, further emphasize the need for comprehensive, spatially accessible, and inclusive solutions.
Due to a critical shortage of health services, socio-economic vulnerabilities, and high levels of psychological distress, the Pomurje region emerges as a strategic site for the establishment of a pilot mental health care system.
The architectural intervention proposes a decentralized spatial framework for mental health care, designed not only to enhance accessibility and the quality of integrated support, but also to function as a catalyst for the regeneration and sustainable revitalization of degraded areas in Slovenia. The system transcends traditional models of institutionalization by establishing a network of facilities across three scales—main therapeutic program, supplementary program and alternative forms of treatment. Together, these create a distributed infrastructure that strengthens local communities, incorporates natural landscapes, and provides adaptable environments for recovery and social reintegration.
Addressing mental health challenges in Slovenia cannot be achieved through isolated large-scale interventions, but rather through a set of smaller, carefully planned interventions that form a network which, in addition to supporting users, also heals the very spaces in which they are embedded.
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