Visiting Children Rehabilitation in Hisingen, Göteborg

Region’s Habilitation Unit of Drottning Silvias Children’s and Youth hospital

When design process started, I needed to loop back to search more about the functions in the program (that I haven't heard before) and after visiting Sofia, it helped me a lot to picture the needs of the spaces.

Earlier I had wrote to Kate Himmelmann, a doctor in children rehabilitation about visiting the place and asking her some questions. They were very busy for a while, and I got a reply recelty that I was welcome to visit!

Indeed I was really very welcomed (as seen on theleft) by Kate (neurolog) and Kristoffer who are both doctors in child rehabilitation. They first answered my questions about children and rehabilitation, then they guided me through the building.

Questions about children-brain injury-disorders:

About the children, healing process and especially the part about plasticity-healing rate was a bit confusing compared to what Michael Nilsson told before. They said that healing process of a child is more delicate compared to an adult, as for adults you know what can come back, but for children; everything is still developing, you dont know if the injury will affect other developments in the child... Anyway but the importance of stress, stumuli and rest were mostly common in all interviews I had been to, so I will be more concerned about topics relating to architecture...

The building:

The unit is in Bräcke in Hisingen a quiet, naturally rich environment. They only rehabilitate children here, so it is not a hospital environment, it is much calmer and peaceful. That is also what they say, children coming here after being to the hospital ease down and feel comfortable.

First impression I got from the building was ful of light, and nature. All corridors were somehow connected to a large opening, euther for circulation either for a common room (such as kitchen) and the room is showered with light. 

 The building is constructed in 1980s, to serve as a habilitation center from the beginning, says Kate Himmelmann, children’s neurologist. The size of the building is allowing generous spaces for all the functions within the building.  It has a capacity to host 10 children for overnight stays, and usually 5 (or maximum up to 10) children for day visits.

The planning allows abundant light into the common spaces and corridors, and enriched with views to nature.

On the ground floor, there is an extremely wide play room, which allows children to move freely whether on foot or on wheelchair, and they can even ride a bicycle. The size and fluency room encourages the children to develop their motor-abilities and allows doctors to monitor their process. The therapy rooms are accessed from the main play hall.

Not only in 2d plannig but the room also is very extended in heights. Some parts of the room has higher ceilings which allows for large scale playgrounds to be placed. Since the whole building serves for rehabilitation, it is obviously : form follows function!

Although access to the therapy rooms is not clear without the tables on the doors, the symbol language makes them clear for all children. It is an important approach, giving courage to children to promote their abilities.

Visual contact vs. Privacy: When it comes to visual contact, the habilitation unit differs from the play therapy unit in Östra. Here, the therapies are scheduled individually for every patient, so joining to the therapies on free will is not very likely.  Visual contact is replaced with privacy concern here, since children might feel anxious or stressed when they feel that they are watched.

Privacy for all: Patients’ room are one  floor up, separate from therapists allowing them to have it like their private home. Parents can have free time with their children here, they can also use their own kitchen on this floor.  Personalization and privacy support their comfort of stay.