Healing architecture: “The sick house” exhibition

Houses help to heal – this is a brief summary of the core message of the current exhibition at the Architekturmuseum der TU München. Based on scientific studies, the show is dedicated to hospital construction and how its design can influence the well-being of patients. There is not only something to see and read in the exhibition, but also something to smell.

At first glance, the wall looks almost like any other. However, an elongated, rectangular surface stands out slightly from the white in terms of color and texture. What is special about this surface is that if you run your fingertips over it, it activates odor molecules. The wall begins to smell; the scent is reminiscent of earth or moss, mixed with something else, harder to name. The installation “MAKING SENSE” by Norwegian artist and smell researcher Sissel Tolaas can be smelled in an exhibition about hospital architecture. When designing hospitals, the olfactory backdrop is one of several factors that can influence how the architecture affects the well-being of patients. On the wall in the exhibition, Tolaas’ installation is now intended to make “healing smells” tangible for visitors.

On July 11, the Architecture Museum of the Technical University of Munich opened the exhibition “Das Kranke(n)haus. How architecture helps to heal”. It is about the architecture of hospitals and the effects – both negative and positive – that these buildings can have on people. In short: how appropriately designed architecture can help sick people recover. The exhibition was curated by architectural psychologist Tanja C. Vollmer, Director of the Museum of Architecture Andres Lepik and Lisa Luksch, research assistant at the Chair of Architectural Theory and Curatorial Practice. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach is the patron of the exhibition.

The background to the exhibition is also a shortcoming that has been recognized in hospital construction in Germany. After clinics in the 20th century were primarily geared towards efficiency and economy, flexibility and rationalization, the approaches of “healing architecture” are now focusing on people again. However, such approaches and “evidence-based design” – i.e. design based on scientific findings – are not yet widely enough recognized and applied in Germany, as the museum writes. The exhibition aims to encourage a rethink of the role architecture plays in the healthcare sector and the possibilities and tasks of hospital construction.

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The installation at the beginning of the exhibition is almost like looking through an oversized keyhole into a hospital room. The wall on the left is mirrored; a green fabric panel is suspended in the room and separates a “room”. Through a large, circular cut-out in the fabric, visitors can see the head end of a hospital bed from behind. The few elements are enough to evoke associations with a patient’s room. The exhibition also provides insights into such rooms. And the show will be about something else that the installation may hint at. The cut-out in the fabric draws the visitor’s gaze. As you are standing behind the hospital bed, you are looking in the same direction and therefore have the same view as a patient in the bed. And the hospital bed faces the window front onto the meadow in front of the museum. Visitors take on the perspective of the patients.

The exhibition is divided into three sections. The first, entitled “Experiment”, presents therapy and aftercare facilities. Photos, plans, models and texts in German and English, displayed on large wooden stands, convey the examples. The title of the section refers to the fact that these facilities are less regulated, technical and complex than hospitals – and have therefore long been a field of experimentation for healing architecture, according to the museum. The buildings presented include the REHAB in Basel, a clinic for the rehabilitation of people with brain damage and/or paraplegia. The new REHAB building by Herzog & de Meuron opened in 2002. The project presentations are accompanied by large infographics on the side walls, for example on the lifespan of hospitals.

The second and central section of the exhibition is also visually different from the first. While the displays in the first section were curved and irregularly shaped, the supports for the examples in the second section are rectangular. The color scheme here is closely linked to the structure of the content.

Entitled “Evidence”, this section presents evidence-based design, as well as the “healing seven”. These refer to factors in the hospital architecture that can influence the stress experienced by severely and chronically ill patients. In order to reduce such harmful stress, these environmental factors can be taken into account when designing the buildings.

The Healing Seven are based on scientific research by Vollmer and architect Gemma Koppen. Over a period of more than ten years, they investigated the influence that the environment in hospitals has on the stress perception of seriously and chronically ill patients. Last year, Vollmer and Koppen then defined the following “healing seven”:

• Orientation
• Olfactory environment
• Soundscape
• Privacy and retreat
• Power points
• View and foresight
• Human scale

In preparation for the exhibition, TUM Master’s students analyzed national and international hospital projects with regard to these seven factors. The 13 projects presented in the exhibition are each assigned to one of the healing seven. The color concept of the displays – each of the factors is assigned a color – picks up on this visually.

Among the projects presented in the second part of the exhibition is the Agatharied Hospital in Hausham, Bavaria, designed by Nickl and Partner and completed in 1998. International examples include the Friendship Hospital Satkhira in southwest Bangladesh by Kashef Chowdhury/URBANA (2018) and the Bürgerspital Solothurn in Switzerland by Silvia Gmür Reto Gmür Architekten (2021). In this section, you will also encounter visitors standing unusually close to the wall – to smell the aforementioned olfactory installation by Sissel Tolaas.

The end of the exhibition is designed to be open, in the literal sense: in a so-called forum, visitors can exchange ideas with each other and with experts, while visiting the exhibition or in event formats. There is literature on the topic on display, which can be browsed or discussed at a large round table. Another olfactory installation by Sissel Tolaas in the form of several translucent fabric panels hangs at the end of this room; behind them, video clips are shown on screens. In this forum, the status quo, solutions and a human-centered future of hospital planning and construction are to be discussed and shaped together, as the museum writes.

The exhibition at the TUM Architecture Museum in the Pinakothek der Moderne runs until January 21, 2024. The Pinakothek is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. except Mondays, and until 8 p.m. on Thursdays.

“The sick(er) house. How architecture helps to heal.”

Architecture Museum of the TUM in the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
July 12, 2023 until January 21, 2024
Curators: Tanja C. Vollmer, Andres Lepik, Lisa Luksch
Curatorial and scientific collaboration: Zeynep Ece Sahin, Friedrich Mönninger
Exhibition architecture: IMS Studio and Friederike Daumiller
Graphic design: strobo B M
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog.

Let’s stay on topic: Bavaria’s largest construction project is a hospital. You can find out more about the redesign, in which SINAI is also involved, here: Großhadern Hospital.