Östra Hospital – Emergency Psychiatry Ward

Corridor-free ward

Östra Hospital offers patients, medical staff, relatives and visitors an opportunity to benefit from a warm environment, with careful gradations of social character – from the separate rooms to seating areas inspired by the vernacular Swedish veranda. At the core of the ward are the living room, kitchen and other communal areas grouped around a small glazed conservatory. This results in a kind of ‘corridor-free ward’, a solution offe­ring patients an opportunity to move around in ways other than through long, constrictive corridors.

Encouraging independence

The concept behind the individual rooms was to offer multiple spaces by creating rooms within the room; resting on the bed while looking out of the window, flicking through a magazine on the armchair in the reading corner, curling up in the recessed window to watch the world go by or leaving the door ajar to see the activity in the communal conservatory. This open design encourages participation while increasing the patients’ personal space, aiding them in their preparation for getting back into life outside.

An interview on the design of new generation psychiatric facilities from the service user and the architect perspective and a conversation about the role of participatory design in increasing the therapeutic effectiveness of mental health facilities for the wider benefit of society. Stefan Lundin, partner at White Arkitekter, and service user Jan Devyr Lernbring at Östra Hospital’s Acute Psychiatry Ward.