THE CHIANG MAI PAPERS

DEREK DILLON'S UNPUBLISHED ARTICLES



ProCynergy Proposal©
The Basic Idea

The contemporary leading edge of the holistic movement is decisively gravitating toward a synthesis mediated by communications, data processing, and imaging technologies. ProCynergy proposes a holistic resort focused precisely on this synthesis, a resort equipped so that it would draw leading professionals in the related fields to stage their meetings, workshops, and health-related tourism activities at its installations.

The centerpiece would be an activities complex comprised of five architecturally integrated facilities connected by a LAN (computer Local Area Network): (1) a computerized mind gym, biofeedback, and virtual realitorium; (2) an aqua relaxation/rejuvenation therapy stadium composed of a farm of multi-media flotation tanks, nutrient-uptake hot-spring pools providing underwater sound baths, and detox jaccuzis based on traditional Korean detoxification techniques; (3) a kinesiology/movement therapy hall with tatami mat floor equipped for holographic dance-theater; (4) a synthesizer-based music and aroma therapy sensorium; and (5) a virtual reality catwalk for shows of fiber-optic and laser-enhanced biofeedback clothing. This complex would simultaneously be therapeutic, recreational, and research-based -- with rotating resident techno-developers, artists, fashion designers, composers, and dance/movement choreographers. The LAN would be designed to evolve in such a manner as to promote a progressive synaesthetic integration of these activity areas. Consultants from the following locations would be required to design such a complex: the San Francisco-based virtual reality development community; Psychic Labs, Inc., of NYC, biofeedback display developers; high-tech interior decor specialists from the Daikanyama design community in Tokyo; the Hawaii-based Human-Dolphin Foundation, discoverers of the flotation tank; the Munich-based music therapy community; a movement therapy consultant from the School of Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. These design consultations would, in themselves, be part of the promotional strategy: word-of-mouth in the right professional circles. A feature article on the activities complex in the magazine MONDO 2000 would be a promotional coup.

Supporting facilities would be comprised of the following: (1) a dedicated colonics center with its own residence block for 20 people, a meeting space and minimal kitchen; (2) a clinic building and herbal pharmacy; (3) a health food restaurant; (4) a workshop meeting hall; (5) a holistic-health-technical shop/boutique; and (6) segregated residence areas, each with a meeting space and minimal kitchen.

Clinically, the resort would offer clients a standard program with a minimum stay of four days, the shortest period for colonics therapy. The clinic would offer, in addition, initially, the services of an acupuncturist/Chinese doctor and herbal therapist. Later, a wide variety of holistic treatment specialists would be brought in for clinical terms of residence.

Design of the resort would require, initially, a geomantic (feng shui) survey, and then close cooperation among the architect, a landscape designer, and a contemporary-art, gallery-design specialist. The buildings and meditation-style gardens would have many designed-in art display spaces. The architectural design would be billed as the signal example of an emergent “Critical Regionalism” in Northern Thai architecture. Magazine and architectural journal articles would be part of the advertising and promotional strategy.

A possible name for the resort is Sen Lompran: energy meridian.


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