How often do we stop to evaluate the technology evolving faster than our ability to adjust between its demands and the urban growth that decreases the natural world around us?
While many quietly recognize the need to disconnect from our screen saturated world, the surge of urban development often overpowers opportunities for intentional pause, reflection, and reconnection with the natural environment.
Community Underlining Issue
Risks
Underutilized Location
Longview Farm located in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, was built by R.A. Long between 1913–1914. The farm was 1,780-acre estate with more than 50 structures, including a mansion, dairy barns, greenhouses, a racetrack, and its own utilities. The long-standing history of the dairy farm as a charitable legacy made it an ideal location to serve the community while restoring a historical landmark that remains abandoned in disrepair and is currently for sale.
The Mindfulness Installation
With a mandatory tech-free zone, the Mindfulness Installation creates a personal experience centered on contemplation, visual and auditory stimulation, and engagement through subtle typographic and environmental design elements. The experience encourages visitors to consciously disconnect from technology and reconnect with themselves and their surroundings, extending beyond the installation as inspiration for everyday life.
Concept
To inspire individuals to step away from the constant use of technology and rediscover balance through engagement with nature and design through contemplative, visual, auditory, and physical connections. The Mindfulness Instillation is a nurturing experience that can be enjoyed by all those in the community and supporting the foundation of their well-being and mental health
Timeframe
6 Weeks
Challenges
How could an underutilized area become an intentional destination rather than simply another exhibition space?
How could the installation encourage visitors to step away from technology without relying on explicit instruction or heavy-handed messaging?
How could typography, visual elements, sound, materials, and movement work together to create an experience rather than simply something to look at?
How could a temporary encounter with the space encourage visitors to carry the idea of mindfulness and disconnection into everyday life?
Design Strategy
Historic Context
Spatial Experience
Natural Materials
Awaken Senses
Invite Reflection
Encourage Release
The Mindfulness Installation layers several subtle design strategies into a cohesive experience. It echoes the internal structure of the historic Longview dairy barns, honoring the site’s agricultural heritage and six-acre green space, while staggered vertical ribbon panels guide the eye toward the arbor’s full scale. Together, these elements create moments of compression and decompression as visitors move through the space.
Compressed-earth pathways connect the two barns to the central installation, directing movement while offering a tactile reminder of how land can be shaped and sustained within the surrounding urban environment.
Two sources of softly flowing water introduce a natural “green noise” that can encourage relaxation and reflection, while fluttering ribbons add a second layer of movement and sound, echoing rustling leaves and giving the space a sense of breath and life.
The Process
Design Branding
Design Schematics
Refinement
Final Installation
Case Studies
Icons used for this case study were sourced from the Noun Project. Thank you to the following designers: Insomnia by Gan Khoon Lay from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0), rejected by Luis Prado from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0), depression by Lulis Dian RP from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0), Low Energy by Zhaficon from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0), Stress by Aenne Brielmann from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)