Oncology Day Care Center, Santos Reyes Hospital, Aranda de Duero. Burgos, Spain. (2018)

Angela Elisabeth Müller

The hardest thing in health care design is not changing the built environment, but changing mentalities. We cannot take care of the body without caring for emotional wellbeing, especially when it comes to cancer patients, who run through long treatment processes and high stress when it comes to check-ups and re-treatments.

This project started off quite differently as planned, as we are specialized on birth environments and were called by the hospital to solve some problems at the maternity ward. During the visit we had an insight on the actual oncology department and changed priorities within minutes. Cancer patients are, together with premature babies, the most vulnerable patients, and what we saw that day was a real eye-opener.

This project offered challenges such as designing for a very diverse group of oncology patients (ambulatory as well as inpatients, with a wide range of age), the resistance of certain staff members, and the advantages and disadvantages of being in a village with an extreme climate situation. In addition to this, limited space and time made us explore new options.

During chemotherapy, each patient has certain needs, and might experience very different treatment days. Once company is needed, another day he or she prefers to be left alone, or asks for the quietest corner, while another patient wishes to be next to the television. Oncology day care centers in Spain are located in hospitals in very boring, desolating environments, offering very little distraction or beauty.
A light wooden pavilion, consisting of prefabricated elements, was the option for a fast construction as well as a “breathing” building, capable to adapt to the different climate situations, and offering the beauty of the riverside of Aranda de Duero.

The more vulnerable the patient group, the more effective can get environmental psychology. That was another reason why we finally decided to situate the new department into a separate pavilion.

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Angela Elisabeth Müller AT

https://parramuller.com/
Marktplatz 2 | 5163 Mattsee/ Salzburg