We are using more and more of it, but nobody wants to need it: care (freely rendered from Nietzsche; “everybody wants to grow old, nobody wants to be old”).
Now the first generation of baby-boomers will retire in 2013, designing for healthcare is more actual than ever. Its is one of the great challenges for interior designers and architects. Together they work with researchers and medical specialists to design new approaches to the complex issue of hospitality. But it is the specific field of the interior architect to contribute to the experience of spatial quality and perception of well being of the residents. After all, most people do not end up in hospital because they eagerly look forward to a doctor’s visit or hospitalization. Excellent medical care to the newest standards is of course a prerequisite, but patients also require attention for their questions and fears. They want a safe, comfortable environment, not an atmosphere that refers to illness, technique and loss of dignity. A quiet and comfortable place for recuperation, not a medical production-unit.
Victor de Leeuw is a partner in EGM Architects and Dutch Health Architects. The relationship of the organization and its users with the social context and of the building with the physical context are key in all his projects. Based on these ambitions he conceives innovative concepts at the cutting edge of functionality, experience and sustainability.
Other speakers: Hedy d'Ancona is a Dutch Politician and a former Minister of Health, Welfare and Culture. She is also the name giver of the bi-annual Hedy d'Ancona Prize for excellent healthcare architecture. "How vital it is to create a healing environment, setting up pleasant accommodations for people who are temporarily or permanently dependent on health care. The underlying idea is that an explicit vision of how this care should be administered . . . can result in extraordinary architecture."
Fiona de Vos is a pioneer on healing environments in the Netherlands. She has worked as an independent consultant for the past 15 years, focusing on programming and evaluating of healthcare- and children’s environments. It is her belief that patients, family and staff should be able to focus entirely on the healing process without having to struggle with the hospital environment.
Erik Veldhoen is the founding father of New Way of Working, a strategic consultant, speaker and publicist, specialising in developing and introducing new working styles based on an integral relationship between the physical, virtual and mental working environments. With the Orbis Medical Centre he developed the 'healing house' of the future, by translating all technological developments into useful innovation to benefit operational management and the patient.
Fransesco Messori is the moderator for this session. He will fuel the debate and together with speakers and audience formulate conclusions. Fransesco is Design Director and Partner at multidisciplinary design studio D/Dock and among others responsible for care and cure concepts at VU Medical Centre and Willem Alexander Childrens Hospital.