This project explores how immersive sensory environments can support emotional regulation, engagement, and restoration for youth outside of school hours. Situated within the Strawberry Mansion community and associated with William Dick Middle School, the proposed program functions as a sensory-aware third space for youth ages 10–16, offering structured yet voluntary activities before and after school.

The project is organized through a chakra-inspired spatial progression, where each zone corresponds to emotional and sensory conditions such as grounding, creativity, confidence, connection, expression, awareness, and reflection. Through a series of immersive, social, exploratory, and restorative environments, students move through varying levels of stimulation and engagement designed to redirect stress into curiosity, interaction, and emotional release. Ultimately, the project proposes immersive environments as preventative spaces of emotional support, belonging, and positive redirection for youth.

Engagement in physical activity is essential for youth development. Physical activity can help foster overall well-being, social connection, academic success, and healthy lifestyle habits. Yet, the growing prevalence of technology use and the lack of readily available and accessible sports facilities limit active participation. Many traditional sports facilities prioritize physical performance alone, often overlooking the mental, emotional, and developmental needs of youth. This thesis proposes a new type of activity facility that intentionally integrates both physical and mental training to support holistic youth development. The facility is designed as a balanced, youth-centered environment that encourages movement, focus, confidence, and social connection.

Philadelphia faces rising rates of stress, poor mental health, obesity, and sleep disturbance, yet the city has almost no accessible spaces designed to support recovery. At the same time, interest in saunas, cold plunges, and other restorative practices has grown, reflecting a widespread need for calmer, more grounding rituals. This thesis proposes a thermal ritual center for Philadelphia—an environment shaped by the proven benefits of heat and cold exposure and informed by global bathing traditions. By combining sensory experience, temperature contrast, material simplicity, and communal gathering, the project explores how space can help regulate the nervous system, reduce stress, and support healthier daily rhythms. Ultimately, this work asks how design can offer Philadelphians an accessible, shared place where rest feels natural and supported, creating a new kind of public resource for a city that needs it.

In today's society, the escalating loneliness epidemic underscores the need to reassess our built environment. This change acknowledges the substantial influence of our surroundings on health and social interactions, reflecting Sandro Galea's view that health is shaped by various societal and environmental factors. CommonRoom, an intergenerational mixed-use development, is crafted to enhance social connections and mitigate the loneliness epidemic prevalent in contemporary society. Drawing from an extensive place analysis in Old Delhi, the foundational guidelines of my design thesis inform both the zoning and development phases of the CommonRoom project.