Healing House - I wake up and then what?

Healing House is an optimistic and realistic proposal for a healthcare cluster that is completely based on the patient’s perspective. It bridges the gap between the world of healthcare, which is necessarily quite distant and operates from the point of view of medical science and technology, and the patient’s experience, which is highly personal.

Healing House is a proposal for a healthcare cluster on the current site of rehabilitation centre Reade Amsterdam, between the Vondelpark and the street Overtoom. The existing building forms a border. Healing House connects the city with the park and the patient with society. 'I-PERSPECTIVE' The design has innovatively taken place in the ‘I-perspective’. The starting point was the most personal part of the project: the bed. From there, functions and spaces were added, and the scale of the building grew. From the apartment to the communal areas with transitional spaces, to a health clinic, a spa as a sunken garden, an above-ground garden, and the surroundings. A strong connection with nature is key. Each room has a view of the park. Most of the materials are sustainable, bio-based, or reused. Beneath the organic plan is a rational 5.4m wooden CLT grid. Gardens from basement to roof invite biodiverse life and lead to healing on different layers. URBAN CONNECTION The proposal makes use of the existing urban plan. The rhythm and material of the historically composed city street Overtoom is continued in the parallel street façade. The clinic building forms a final piece on an existing open urban block and the Vondelpark gets an extension in the form of a garden, which continues into the building. The post COVID-world we live in has a growing attention for a healthy living environment. At the same time there is another trend: hospitals are moving to the edges of the city. Healing House does the opposite and nestles itself in the existing living environment, to make healthcare part of the daily life of ‘residents', neighbors, and visitors. The project is based on a broad informal care team, which includes family, friends, and visitors in addition to care providers. MORE HUMAN, LESS PATIENT Due to the privatization of healthcare, many healthcare buildings have been designed as efficient machines, where insurance companies determine the quality of a vulnerable life. In Healing House this is radically reversed: here the residents, their relatives and therefore the quality of life (and death) are key on all scale levels.