The entrance to the Fawzia Sultan Rehabilitation Institute is dominated by a series of beveled glass blocks that transform it into a shimmering sea of blue, green, and yellow when touched by light. Katherine Papageorgiou, the interior designer, points out that they correspond to an ancient pattern of aesthetics. They follow a famous mathematical sequence known as the Fibonacci Sequence – 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13… -- that is often found in the natural world, and that has long been used by architects to build sacred places.

By using the sequence in the entrance feature, Katherine was deliberately invoking principles of holistic design, or as she describes it, “the art of ensuring that buildings fulfill the function they were created to serve, not only in a conventional architectural way in terms of mechanics, but also in emotional and spiritual ways.” It is a philosophy that she used throughout the Institute, from the careful placement of plants and flowers to the colors of the chairs.

“I was trying to create an environment that helps people recharge and heal themselves,” Katherine points out. “For that reason, it is important for the rehabilitation institute building itself to reflect as much as possible the truth of things, as well as the idea of regeneration.”

Ancient Design Arts

Katherine incorporated three design traditions used for centuries by master builders into the Fawzia Sultan Rehabilitation Institute: color therapy, sacred geomancy, and Feng Shui.

Color therapy is based on the idea that colors are vital to basic wellbeing. “Think of color as food,” Katherine explains, “because color is the breakdown of components of light, and without light, there can be no life on the planet. Different colors feed different needs in our life.” 

            The colors seen most often in the Rehabilitation Institute are green and blue. “Green is the color of nature, and for that reason it carries with it the quality of regeneration,” Katherine says. “I thought it appropriate to use a lot of green; almost enough to make it feel like a forest, to heighten this effect.” Blue, on the other hand, is often associated with knowledge and self-cultivation, and by extension, healing, and can be seen primarily in the research and administrative areas.

            The traditional geometric patterns of Islamic design made so famous in the ceilings and courtyards of mosques around the world also make their appearance at the Institute. “Islamic patterns are representations of natural law, because nature builds according to certain recurring proportions – known as Sacred Geometry,” according to Katherine. “So when the mind sees those patterns, it stabilizes and becomes harmonious, and a harmonious mind is the best protection against illness.”

            These powerful Islamic patterns can be found in a series of drawings throughout the Institute. Katherine, who has previously exhibited her work in both Kuwait and San Francisco, says that the drawings are intended to heal, calm, energize, and educate. “They emphasize that the Institute is not just a functional place.” 

            Last and not least, Katherine drew on the ancient Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui to bring balance to the building. Through the careful placement of objects within a space, Feng Shui has the unique property of being able to correct any disruptions in the energy equilibrium caused by the actual architectural design, says Katherine. She draws attention to the position of various plants and explains that they improve the working relationships of people, while the running water and fountains in the two internal courtyards refresh the mind and body.  

The Interior Designer

Katherine Papageorgiou credits growing up in Greece for inspiring her interest in physical spaces. “There is something in the air in Greece, some magical quality when you visit the historic sites of Delphi, Olympia, and Epidaurus that I always instinctively sensed, but could not quite put my finger on,” she says. “So I decided to study architecture in the United States to explore it further.”

Rather than finding answers, however, as an architecture student at the University of Arizona in the 1960s, she says that she found “total chaos” instead. “The standard by which buildings were created was superficial – they were mechanically very functional, aesthetically deprived, and they did not have the power to affect humans in any profound way.”

When Katherine married a Kuwaiti and moved to Kuwait, she began to study psychology as a hobby. Through her study of the mind, she stumbled on Carl Jung’s work on archetypes -- individual and collective ways of thinking, feeling, and perceiving – that in turn led her to discover geomancy, or the science of building in a way that connects human beings to the universe and to the Sacred. Through this roundabout route, Katherine began “applying archetypes to architecture,” she says. 

            Beginning with a project using color therapy in school buildings in Kuwait contracted by the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, continuing throughout a MSc. in Architecture from Cambridge University and an extended period of study with Feng Shui teacher His Holiness Lin Yuan, and extending over 20 years of holistic design practice in San Francisco, Katherine has continued to observe what she considers old truths. She is proud to bring them back to Kuwait once again.

            “Kuwait has been rushed into modernity so fast that it lost its sense of traditional design. There has been so much confusion, especially in the 1960s, where the time-honored was destroyed and replaced with the ostentatious. Now, however, there seems to be interest in bringing back some of the old ways, especially in terms of Islamic design”

            “I am hopeful. And of course for me, the Fawzia Sultan Rehabilitation Institute, which is the first building of its kind to be designed according to holistic principles in Kuwait, is a sort of coming full-circle.”