BUILDING FOR PEOPLE WITH CANCER

After kopvols’ film presentation of their observations in Dutch cancer clinics at the end of the empirical research project ‘Architecture as 2nd Body’, the audience is initially left in an awkward silence. 5 minutes of silence pass before project leaders Gemma Koppen and Tanja C. Vollmer can start presenting their study results. These include the OPPO-prototype, a model of a new building typology for a synergetic outpatient care of oncological patients. With this project, the Dutch Ministry VROM for the first time funds a nationwide study on the influence of hospital architecture on the health and well-being of people with cancer and their families. The presentation is accompanied by lectures from four different perspectives that converge in hospital architecture: those of the doctor, those of care and therapy, those of the patient and those of the architect. The programme booklet is designed by artist Jonmar van Vlijmen. Prof. Dr. Maarten von Meyenfeldt, Director of the Oncology University Centre in Maastricht and Dr. Bram Kuiper, Director of the Helen Dowling Centre in Utrecht report of their involvement in the project and the future consequences of the results for the planning, design and construction of clinical treatment facilities. The results are published in a special issue of Layout magazine in Dutch. Partial results have been published in the book Architektur Wahrnehmen (Abel, Rudolph, 2018) and will be published more comprehensively in an English-language book publication in autumn 2020.