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.
REN cluster represents space for development and normality and reflects the intention of an architecture to reconstruct normality for families in the hospital. Normality in this context means a reduction of stress and anxiety of the affected persons, who sometimes spend several weeks or days in the hospital. The REN cluster combines the traditional psychosocial and educational functions with lounge and play areas (cluster). The result is a completely new inpatient typology of an a-clinical care landscape linking several wards, which orientates, calms, structures, distracts and relieves parents, children and adolescents. The REN cluster is described in numerous publications and is the core of radio and television reports on innovations in the construction of children’s and youth clinics.
Selected Publications:
Vollmer, T. C., Koppen, G., Vraetz, T., & Niemeyer, C. (2017). Entwicklungsräume. JuKiP – Ihr Fachmagazin Für Gesundheits- Und Kinderkrankenpflege, 06(06), 239–244.
Vollmer, T. C., Vraetz, T., Koppen, G., & Niemeyer, C. M. (2017). Evidenzbasiertes Design und Patientenorientierung in der Kinder- und Jugendklinik Freiburg. In C. Nickl-Weller, S. Matthys, & T. Eichenauer (Eds.), Health Care der Zukunft 6: Livability of Health (pp. 81–90). Berlin: Medizinisch Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft.
SWR, Herzenssache. Lebenszeit statt Wartezeit: https://www.herzenssache.de/projekte/kinderklinik-freiburg-108.html
>> go to RUN-Cluster movie