WIP: Kirkbride style Insane Asylum Foorplan for Mystery Game

[Robbie]

Good catch, f will have a stairway from the floor above it. I guess I could add a door anyways.

The center building is almost directly copied from the reference material. I'll probably change it before I'm done.

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[Robbie]

I just copied the map to the second story and deleted the porches and copied the regular ward floorplan to cover the work ward which only exists on the basement level. I haven't decided on the labeling as to whether or not I'll use new numbers/letters...I also still need to make the second story modifications to the center building structure. Lots of work to do, lol.

[Mouse]

When this is 3D you could always just put door numbers on the rooms. People would have to work out for themselves what all the rooms were.

Putting a nice friendly patient's name and a little personal history in a framed picture thing on the wall beside the door is a relatively modern innovation in care homes and such, but you could use it here if you wanted to add a bit of variety and interest along the corridor.

Is this going to be in a state of abandonment and neglect - a haunted hospital with added monsters? If so, such plaques might be barely readable but sometimes give clues.... or sometimes be misleadingly friendly/unfriendly...

[Robbie]

I've finally started putting some thought into the storyline, and it will in fact be an occupied fully staffed asylum in it's prime, probably set around 1870's or so. You as a player will possibly be a patient or something like that...I don't want to spoil too much, but let's just say it will not be an abandoned run down facility. Quite the opposite.

Here's my current floorplan progress:


I still need to streamline and better indicate the stairs. The rest of the fourth story of the main building needs to be laid out as well as something that shows the dome/towers and such. I'd also like to map out the boiler/fan house and farm/barn. I'm not really happy with the floorplan of the center building portion and will probably be making some pretty large changes to that on all levels. I'll also be adding a cellar very soon as well as indications for dumbwaiters and possibly some way to show dust flues and chutes and hoppers and such, possibly even ventilation shafts.

If anyone has any thoughtsor complaints please let me know before I start modeling this up.

[arsheesh]

I know nothing about this asylum, so I won't be of much help to you. But the layout looks good to me. Looking forward to seeing what you have in store for this.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Mouse]

Its a huge project, Robbie, but looking really great so far.

I once visited an old Kirkbride style hospital which had been converted to a boarding school/care home setup for severely disabled children. It was set in vast grounds that were laid out like a country park. The place was so peaceful, and so calming - it was hard to think of it as a place where there would probably have been a lot of noise and drama in its days as a mental hospital for the clinically insane!

All the outbuildings (and there were many - various prefab schoolrooms etc mixed in with older buildings) were out at the back. A conscious decision had obviously been made to preserve the beautiful brick and stonework of the frontage, and leave the driveway (which curled into a circle around a large Victorian fountain in front of the centre door) very much 'as-was'. You could have safely filmed footage for a period film right there, under the avenue of mature lime trees. The impression was more 'stately home' than hospital

I can't remember for certain, but I think one of the outbuildings was originally a stable with a coach house.

I don't know if this was typical of the style. Maybe this one was special because it was built out in the country, and in those days our roads would have been pretty rough!

[Robbie]

Arsheesh, I may start 3d modelling one of the wards very soon. So stick around.

Mouse, that sounds like a treat. You're in UK right? I know the UK used a method a little different than the Kirkbride plan, or he got his ideas from the UK plans. But the UK hospitals I've seen layouts of are amazing. Rauceby comes to mind. That would be a huge undertaking!

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[Mouse]

I think the UK hospitals were based on the 'long line' layout of many stately homes of a slightly earlier period.

I have a pattern recognition thing going on in my brain that's a bit like the OCD counting thing, but a whole lot more complicated, in that its all in 3D and includes pattern, shape, form, and colour... though its not sharp enough to be able to draw a city skyline from memory after just 30 seconds of looking at it, or anything flashy like that.

Its possible that your plan triggered memories of that visit, which was over 25 years ago.

Based on previous experience of how well I remember patterns (which incidentally is how I picked out that link when I was googling Kirkbride for you at the start of this thread), I would say there were too many similarities between the building I remember and the hospital model you are making for it to be mere coincidence.

Possibly Kirkbride may have been influenced by even earlier architectural plans. We'll never know for sure, though

[Robbie]

Well I've used the heck out of that book. The text answers a lot of questions that the plates don't. It's not written in the best organization so I have to bounce around a bit in the book but it's super helpful. The information about the admin section is pretty dodgy though, like how the stairs and ceiling heights are supposed to properly line up with the wards (note the ceiling height notations on my map). I also have very little info about the 4th story of the admin section other than part of it is open to the chapel/auditorium and there's a stairwell that continues up to the dome.

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[Mouse]

Oh yes...

Thinking about it, there would have to be at least 3 extra steps on each flight to rise through the floors that are 2' taller than the one below...

Maybe the span of the steps gets smaller, or the rise gets taller. Pretty dangerous to change it in one stairwell! Could be gradually smaller landings between flights?