Architecture As 2nd Body -
Comprehensive Cancer Center in Munich

Hospitals are places where the institutionalized language speaks the loudest. The institutionalized has its own rules, its own understanding and it takes over the mental and physical control within its territories. There is a certain logic that the patients need to follow in a hospital –whether it be presented via signboards, building materials, scale or privacy settings. The technical regulations of healthcare centers and neglected sensitive psychology of patients and their companions show themselves in the architecture as depressive places without any daylight, public spaces that the patients feel exposed to pierced looks, staff rooms in basement floors etc. These can fall on stony ground in any other public or commercial building but when it is combined with the psychology of patients and their companions in a comprehensive cancer center, it becomes a significant threat that its adverse effects on health and recovery process have been proven.
Thechallengeinthisprojectwastoextractthenon- institutional language in our daily lives and convert it to an architectural output that serves as a healing environment, within a context that the technical requirements and entrenched institutionality impose rigid restrictions. My goal in this project was to design a building that give self-confidence, trust, optimism and strength to its users.