Designing Interiors with the Power to Heal
by Wendy Croixwendy.croix@interiordesignschoolreview.com
Interior Design School Review Columnist
A small-town cancer treatment center in Batesville, Indiana offers a comforting, homey environment to clients who are battling for their lives. Half a world away, in Sub-Saharan Africa, designers are constructing healing spaces in mobile health clinics used to diagnose and treat HIV/AIDS. In both locations, the creativities of those whose interior design jobs center on health care environments provide blueprints for humane design.
Interior Design Idea-Generators
Two very different strategies were used to jump-start ideas, making patient comfort the top priority in health care interior design. Indiana's Margaret Mary Community Hospital used patient focus groups to guide their clinic designs. Designers created chemotherapy treatment bays that look out on a garden and pond. They added a library with internet access and patient education materials, a wig boutique, and a massage service.To stimulate design ideas for mobile medical clinics that can get AIDS education and treatment to isolated communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, Architecture for Humanity held an international design contest. Designers had to both choose an adequate vehicle and create interior designs offering adequate storage and security for equipment and supplies--all this, while creating a community-friendly image. KHRAS Arkitekter of Virum, Denmark met the challenge. Now the prototype is under construction.
Design Materials Improve Health Care Interiors
In the design of humane interiors, flexibility is key. When focus groups showed that some patients want privacy during lengthy chemotherapy treatments while others seek company, designers solved the conflict by providing treatment bays with sliding wood-framed etched glass doors.Low-light coated sheet glass reduces reflections, creating windows in which patients who don't want to see their own images don't have to. Omnova Solutions now offers a new breathable product for interior wall design in health care settings where standard institutional-style vinyl causes persistent problems. "Brease," a woven-vinyl wall covering protects the walls it covers by fighting mold and mildew. Add these materials and motivation to compassion and the result is interiors that have the power to heal.
Sources:
"Breathable wall covering," by Rita F. Catinella. Architectural Record 192.9 (Sep 2004).
"Design's Healing Powers," by Sheila Kim. Interior Design 74.1 (Jan 2003).
Mobile Health Clinics to Combat HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa
"Treating the Soul," by Terese Hudson Thrall. Hospitals & Health Networks 79.7 (Jul 2005).
About the Author
Wendy Croix, Ph.D. is a freelance writer, cultural critic and university professor. In her twenty years as a professional educator, Wendy has guided hundreds of students toward the careers of their dreams.
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