HEALTH AND SPA

Dear Readers,

This is what hospitals in Provence can look like (picture above) – if they were built at the end of the 18th century. At that time, a building typology based on the needs of hospitals and patients was obviously still a long way away. The advantage: in the following decades, the historic building could be converted into a school, a residential building and finally a wine cellar. We discovered the multifunctional building in Avignon, where this year’s INsider Award took us. Since 2008, we have been inviting nominated interior designers to a colloquium to select the best in the industry. Find the winners of the INsiders on page 17! Back to health care facilities: The balancing act between functional processes, technical and hygienic requirements and an atmosphere conducive to healing is certainly a major challenge. For our AIT issue on “Health and Wellness”, we set out to find projects where, after fulfilling the technical specifications, there was still the budget for and the will to design an interior that conveys security and confidence. The dental practices in Berlin, Stuttgart and Asheville (p.68 ff.) and the Blood Donation Room in Hamburg (p.82) are anything but sterile and frightening. The projects in Utrecht, Barcelona and Heidelberg (p.84 ff.) clearly illustrate the importance of a protective, relaxing environment for cancer patients. Maggie Keswick Jencks came to this conclusion in 1993. Having fallen ill with cancer herself, she and her husband Charles Jencks laid an architectural foundation for cancer patients to be absorbed by an environment that would allow them to forget the disease and contribute to healing. Meanwhile, 22 Maggie’s Centres have been opened – designed by renowned architects, the latest one in Barcelona (p.88). Maggie Keswick Jencks did not live to see this success, she died of her illness in 1995. On October 13, her husband, the great architect of postmodernism and architectural theorist Charles Jencks, died at the age of 80 – 24 years after the first Maggie’s Centre was opened in Scotland.

Best wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect