Interior Design: the Healing Power

The interior design department of “ABD Architects” has completed the remodelling project for the multi-field hospital “Klinika 31”.

Written by:
Tatiana Shovskaya
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

25 April 2012

Object

Architect:

Firm:

ABD architects

Object:

“Klinika 31” Medical Center
Russia, Moscow, Lobachevsky st., 42, Bld. 4

Project Team:
Maria Korneeva – Chief architect of the project Peter Fidelman – Architect Sophie Arsenyeva – Architect Aleksey Litin – project manager S. Ananyev - photographer

7.2009 — 5.2010 / 3.2010 — 5.2011

Since we, as humans, tend to react to colours above anything else, the coloristics issue was given particular attention in developing this interior design solution. It will be safe to say that most of us associate medical institutions with the white colour in the first place, and "Klinika 31" became no exception: the interior of its premises is dominated by this particular colour. However, to make it look clearer and more "resonant", the architects introduced the black colour as well (in some floor areas), and added a light-grey tone to soften the contrast. Such monochrome palette, on the other side, needed some accents. The authors and the commissioner spent a long time deciding on the colour that was become the "anchor" one in the interior, and finally made their choice in favour of the orange colour, bright and "positive-looking" by default. The orange is used to mark the public areas of the clinic, which makes it easier for the patients to get their bearings in the place. The offices and wards are less dramatic, and the monochrome palette is cut with blue as the accent colour. Just like the corridors, the offices are divided into clearly marked areas - the floor covering of different colours marks the desk area, the entrance area, and the examination area.

From our own experience, most of us know that the main problem of the public clinics is their long corridors, and in this building this problem is worsened by the low ceilings, because initially it had been built for a different purpose and was not meant to support the huge amount of communications that are inevitably concealed behind the ceiling panels in any medical institution. The architects had no other option than to come up with a whole arsenal of planning tricks and ideas to compensate for the monotonousness of the corridors. The different heights of the ceiling, for example, add to their dynamics, and the waiting rooms that are "cut into" the long corridors help mask the excessive "straightforwardness" of the communication lines. This same function is also performed by the diagonal stripes on the floor; they are echoed by the lamp patterns on the ceiling.

The hall of the first floor and the reception desk is designed in the way as traditional as possible. It is finished with a combination of wooden and travertine panels that ideally fit one another and are divided with a metal bracing. The direction of the movement of visitors in the hall is set by the lighting.

Leaflet

Architect:

Firm:

ABD architects

Object:

25 April 2012

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