Graduation project: redesigning a rehabilitation clinic in Rotterdam. This project was part of an extensive study on healthcare architecture and developments within the healthcare industry like Healing Environments and Evidence based design.

The last year of my M.Arch programme, I almost completely devoted myself towards the healthcare industry. Firstly a study has been carried out on the developments in hospital architecture in the Netherlands after 1945, in this research an attempt has been made to link the transformation in architecture with the governmental policies and the sociological progress within the Dutch culture.

This research was leading towards my graduation project where I chose to develop a redesign for the Rotterdam based rehabilation clinic Rijndam, beautifully located between one of the characterstic Singels of Rotterdam and the city’s green lung of the Museumpark. Like other Dutch examples of Healthcare design, the clinic is not particularly designed with the patient in mind which results in a non-stimulating and evenpatient unfriendly environment. Proving that patient centered yet pratical design is feasible, was the main objective in this case.  A scientific study on the principles of Healing Environment and Evidence Based Design served as starting point for the redesign. Outcomes proved that architectural features do contribute to the well-being of patients and therefore have a positive influence on the recovery process.

A new programme of requirements has been drawn up with specific attention to enhance interaction between people. One of the key design strategies is to embed the clinic into ‘normal’ society, contradictory to popular beliefs whereas healthcare buildings tend to be very closed off. The design strives to accomplish this opened up approach, by adding a central passageway which will stimulate pedestrian flows between the Singel and the Museumpark. The facility will house different groups of patients divided in several categories of seriousness. For each group the specific needs have been carefully assessed and translated into a renewed business model, resulting in a conceptual lay-out for the clinic.
A typical Dutch building block served as conceptual input for the composition of the ensemble, arising from the position that therapy is the core of the recovery process, and therefore can be thought of as the philosophical heart of the building. This vulnerable heart should be embraced by surrounding volumes, protecting the patient from external influences  and  moreover providing space  for carefully placed green atrias which enhance the Healing experience of this  patient centered clinic.