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Over two years after the groundbreaking, the new Maggie's Centre Barts in Central London finally opened earlier this week. Located throughout the UK, Maggie's Centres offer free practical and emotional support for people who live with cancer and their loved ones. Steven Holl Architects, along... View full entry
[James] Leadbitter called it “a playful and exciting space for redesigning madness, a utopian attempt at what a mental health hospital could be like.”
Each structure...is an abstract interpretation of the feedback from the workshops, designed to offer varying levels “of privacy and intimacy ranging from total isolation to complete togetherness.”
“This is only a small glimpse of a project that has huge potential to influence the way we think about the design of mental health care environments,”
— Slate
More than 300 patients, architects, and psychiatrists pitched their ideas on how they would redesign the psychiatric ward for “Madlove: A Designer Asylum”, a collaborative project conceived by artist and activist James Leadbitter, who has suffered from mental illness and has stayed at several... View full entry
Unwilling to accept a life utterly dependent on caretakers, [Steve] Saling designed a series of systems that let patients with ALS control their environment in the assisted living center with ...blinks and facial twitches.
“The notable impact that ALS had on my ability to design is speed,” he said. “I am a lot slower. [But] Because much of my profession had been computerized and I excelled in computer-assisted drafting, I was still able to convey my ideas with a lot of precision.”
— STAT
Read more about amazing architects who never let their disabilities get in their way:Working out of the Box: Francis TsaiFrancis Tsai, previously featured on Archinect's Working Out of the Box, passes awayBuilding Voice: Visually impaired architect, Christopher Downey, lectures in Downtown... View full entry
Over the last few years, we’ve all finally admitted that hospitals are depressing, sometimes toxic places...[But] what if the solution is to redesign the building itself?...Since the late 1980’s, hotels—not hospitals—specifically designed for sick people have been popping up throughout Scandinavia. In [some countries,] a patient’s stay is free, covered by national insurance...Accommodations at patient hotels resemble most traditional 3-star hotel properties. — Quartz
More about health-related design on Archinect:Jason Danziger heals psychosis with designHow urban designers can better address mental health in their work, according to a new think tankPreventing disease and upholding public health through architectureConstruction kicks off for Steven... View full entry
Danziger addressed the issues of perception: How does a patient with a shifted perception experience space? He focused on color, the distribution of light, material, and shape. — NPR Berlin
While designing for medically healthy clients can occasionally drive an architect insane, an entirely different set of challenges is involved in creating a safe and healing environment for mentally ill patients. Architect Jason Danziger found himself asking questions like: what makes a bed... View full entry
