The University Children’s and Youth Hospital in Freiburg treats 75,000 CAYA (children, adolescents and young adults) of different entities every year. As a nationwide model project, the hospital brings together professional competence, holistic medicine and care, as well as research, training and further education in a more efficient medical infrastructure and all under one roof. The architecture plays an important role in this context. Therefore Kopvol is commissioned to define design criteria in the framework of a research and development project that can be used as a basis for the later design of this environment, i.e. a so-called evidence-based design. Two of the criteria are then worked out and detailed by Kopvol in an interior design: The REN cluster and the Anti waiting room.
In line with the science-based approach “Waiting hurts”, the Anti-Waiting Room creates an outpatient area where children, adolescents and their families can find exactly the distraction and education they need and where the time spent in hospital can be used individually.
The families thus measurably reduce their fears and are optimally prepared for medical examinations and therapies. The architectural result is a completely new type of outpatient typology of a non-clinical examination landscape connecting several outpatient departments, which orientates, calms, structures, distracts and relieves parents, children and adolescents. The Anti-Waiting Room is described in numerous publications and is the main subject of radio and television reports on innovations in the construction of children’s and youth clinics.
Selected publication:
Vollmer, T. C., Koppen, G., Vraetz, T., & Niemeyer, C. (2017). Entwicklungsräume. JuKiP – Ihr Fachmagazin Für Gesundheits- Und Kinderkrankenpflege, 06(06), 239–244.