Casper Schwarz designs the Alexander Monro Hospital. A Hospital, a hotel, a home?

Interior designer Casper Schwarz, of Casper Schwarz Architects, primarily focused on the needs of the patients when coming up with his design for this Dutch hospital, which specializes in breast cancer. A careful design and avant-garde furniture (Sancal, Kartell, ...) make Alexander Monro Ziekenhuis looks a comfortable hotel or you feel at home.

Important questions about how patients would feel upon first entering such a hospital were at the forefront of his thoughts when coming up with the concept. How do you experience the hospital? What do you see and what don’t you see? Schwarz focused on the human experience, right from the start of this redevelopment project, and he didn’t think of the ‘usual aspects’ when designing a hospital.

‘The interior determines how comfortable you are, how much confidence you have in the medical profession and whether you feel respected. That's why we designed this hospital in such a way so that the patient is at the centre, and not the staff’, say Schwarz.

When entering the hospital, patients first enter into a non-intimidating central hall. Not too big, not too small, under a pitched roof with a fireplace and a coffee shop. Comfortable furniture should make the patients feel at home.

Each consulting room has a different atmosphere and all are named after strong female role-models, such as the physicist Marie Curie and anthropologist Jane Goodall, which is visualised by large graphics on the walls. The choice of the colours and lighting fixtures were also important design aspects in order to give each room openness and a level privacy in careful balance.

The consulting rooms, nursing stations and offices are all transparent, while the research areas and the bedrooms are kept private. The patients’ rooms are similar to spacious hotel rooms, including a private bathroom and double bed, so a partner is able to stay the night.

Casper Schwarz Architects has designed an interior in which all medical facilities are seemingly taken out of sight. Each room is comfortably furnished with quality furniture and subdued colour schemes. This former office building has been effortlessly transformed into a hospital, where the occupants might for a moment be able to forget they are in a hospital.

Source: Casper Schwarz Architects
Photography: Han Nooijen
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