Passed Away – Dead – Died – Cause of Death News.
Suicide is a sensitive and complicated subject that many architects and institutions are reluctant to discuss with the media. However, it is important to reflect on their stance of responsibility in ensuring that buildings do not present danger and risk of self-harm to vulnerable people. The recent death of a talented poet, writer, former music journalist, and singer-songwriter who took her own life by leaping over security railings on an upper floor of the Centre Pompidou in Paris raises urgent questions about public institutions’ safety measures and their accountability in preventing such deaths.
The Centre Pompidou is undergoing extensive renovations at a cost of €262 million ($285 million) and closing its doors from the end of 2025 until 2030. Significant changes being made range from creating a new space under the piazza to renovating the roof. However, in response to an inquiry about whether the Centre Pompidou was planning to implement suicide prevention measures and architectural changes in a bid to avoid similar tragedies, its press officer said that an investigation was underway and that the Centre Pompidou “cannot intervene or express itself on this subject at present.”
Newer buildings also have to face a similar reckoning. Vessel, a 150-foot-tall climbable structure with 2,400 steps at Hudson Yards in Manhattan, designed by London-based Heatherwick Studio, closed after a teenage boy died by suicide. It was the fourth suicide since the tourist attraction opened in 2016. With its diagonal, seemingly endless staircases reminiscent of drawings by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher, Vessel had already closed for several months after three suicides before reopening with new safety measures, including signage about mental health resources. However, those changes proved inadequate.
The risks associated with Vessel were apparent to some at its launch. In a prescient article published in The Architect’s Newspaper in 2016, journalist Audrey Wachs wrote: “As one climbs up Vessel, the railings stay just above waist height all the way up to the structure’s top, but when you build high, folks will jump.” Wachs referred to how New York University’s Bobst Library addressed a spate of suicide cases at its central atrium in the 2000s by making architectural changes. The first was installing Plexiglas panels, which failed to prevent another suicide. Then the university veiled the atrium in laser-cut aluminum panels with a striking pixelated, perforated pattern designed by Joel Sanders.
“Though suicide prevention is now beginning to enter the conversation, there is still a great deal of stigma and shame surrounding the topic, which continues to hamper efforts to address this issue,” Sanders told Artnet News. “To remedy this, as a society we need to have an open conversation about this taboo in American social life, regarding its systemic causes as well as the possible steps we can take to change the situation. Architects need to be part of this conversation, so that moving forward we can generate new design strategies […] which would bring the public to the table to collaborate on spatial solutions that take aesthetic considerations into account, and are not band-aid measures that are introduced after the fact, as is largely the case today.”
The boom in viewing platforms and high rooftop terraces over the last few decades is matched by a need for architects and their clients to consider the risk of self-harm and assess how designs of existing buildings could be modified for suicide prevention. Papageno, a suicide prevention program supported by France’s ministry of health, is part of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and offers expert advice on this issue. “Institutions, architects, and Architects of the Buildings of France contact us for recommendations and examples of what’s been done around the world [in terms of suicide prevention strategies],” Nathalie Pauwels, Papageno’s deployment program manager, told Artnet News.
“It is up to suicide prevention workers to inform them unless a legal obligation is imposed on them in the years to come,” Pauwels said. Looking ahead, Pauwels would like to raise awareness in architectural schools so that the upcoming generation of architects take suicide precaution measures into account when designing future buildings. She also advocates for norms, such as heights of security fencing, to be introduced. “There are norms for handicapped people and the opening of windows but not yet for suicide prevention,” she said.
Indeed, effective integration of suicide prevention measures is something that could save lives. Architects and institutions need to consider the risk of self-harm and assess how designs of existing buildings could be modified for suicide prevention. Suicide prevention workers should inform architects and institutions unless a legal obligation is imposed on them in the years to come. Awareness should be raised in architectural schools so that the upcoming generation of architects take suicide precaution measures into account when designing future buildings. Norms, such as heights of security fencing, should be introduced. All these measures combined can help prevent future tragedies.
- Suicide prevention in museum design
- Architects and suicide prevention responsibility
- Integrating mental health support in museum design
- Creating safe spaces for visitors in museums
- Designing for mental wellness in cultural institutions
News Source : Artnet News
Source Link :How Star Architects Can—And Must—Embrace Their Responsibility to Integrate Suicide Prevention Into Museum Designs/