The Development Oriented Building

The Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology is the largest pediatric cancer center in Europe. As a reference center for pediatric and adolescent oncology, it sets new standards in care, research and training in the field of cancer medicine and care. One of its main focuses is to address the serious physical, mental and psychological late effects of cancer in children and adolescents. In addition to the medical perspective, the hospital environment should also play a major role from the start of planning. For this reason, Kopvol is commissioned to define design criteria in the context of a research and development project, which can serve as a basis for the later design of such an environment, i.e. a so-called evidence-based design. The design criteria, which have meanwhile gained worldwide attention, include the “one-minute-rule”, the “25%-distraction-and-movement-surface-rule” and the “age-and-peer-group-adaptation-rule”, to name just a few. Study results and design criteria are presented in the Dutch monograph “Het Ontwikkelingsgerichte Gebouw. Over de invloed van de gebouwde omgeving op genezing en ontwikkeling van gehospitaliseerde kinderen- en jongeren met kanker“(The Developmental Building. On the influence of the built environment on the healing and development of hospitalized children and young adults with cancer) (Koppen, Vollmer, 2010); extracts have been published in journals in German and English. The complete publication in German language will appear in 2021.

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., & Koppen, G. (2015). Architektur hilft heilen! Luxuriöser Wunsch oder beweisbare Wirklichkeit? Klinik-Wissen-Managen. (2), 22–25.

Koppen, G., & Vollmer, T. C. (2010). The child development supportive building: Design criteria for the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology. Report. Bilthoven.