Together with material designers Alissa+Nienke and sensorial curator Justine Kontou, we worked together under the name of Spaces for Well being.
Our mission is to develop research-based spaces that contribute to individual health and happiness. Materials, installations, and various spatial elements that enrich your sensory experience with the intention to positively influence your mood.
Together we did a project in the Elisabeth Tweesteden Hospital in Tilburg to enhance wellbeing on the department of daycare treatment of oncology.
The oncology day care unit is a specific unit. Patients come in during the day to receive treatment, such as chemotherapy or immunotherapy, and leave when their treatment is finished. It’s based on scheduled appointments, and additional tests or diagnostics by a doctor are done elsewhere.
The department has undergone a metamorphosis over the past year to become more of a healing environment. It has moved away from a clinical atmosphere and added different colours and materials to make it more comfortable for patients, visitors and staff. This gave us the opportunity to add an extra dimension by creating Spaces for Wellbeing throughout the department.
The preliminary research we did changed the way we looked at this department and its users. From a place where we expected fear, anxiety and stress to be the main state of mind, we learned that there is also a lot of hope and social support in this department. As long as patients are receiving treatment, there is hope that they will get better or live longer. A strong factor in this is the support that both patients and staff receive from each other. Being able to talk about life and not just the disease. Being able to really help people feel better or make their situation easier or more comfortable. It’s all based on social support, having something to hold on to, being able to just be.