TU Delft's Bucky Lab: Hospital room with a view

04/22/2020 | Print view

What looks like conventional bay windows from the outside hides a clever design by the Bucky Lab students that generally makes the inside of the hospital room a more healthy place. - © Bucky Lab / TU Delft — © Bucky Lab / TU Delft

What looks like conventional bay windows from the outside hides a clever design by the Bucky Lab students that generally makes the inside of the hospital room a more healthy place.

The prototype project Call it magic! designed as part of the TU Delft's master's degree programme Bucky Lab is a fresh approach to how the windows of a hospital can allow in a view of the world outside and thus contribute to the healing process.

The design by Bucky Lab students Konstantina Chouliara, Weronika Gras, Tarang Gupta, Maria Dimas and Elisa Vintimilla aims to optimize the recovery process through light manipulation and visual communication with the outside world. With mirrors, the patient can enjoy the views of nature even while confined to bed.

Getting a view of life and nature outdoors while in hospital has been shown to have significant beneficial effects: Patients require 30 per cent less painkillers, suffer less stress and anxiety, spend 10 per cent less time recovering from surgery and experience better overall wellbeing as well as lower blood pressure.

Even when confined to their sickbed, the patients can still see the world outside, which is known to have significant health benefits.

This makes the facade an integral part of the medical treatment. The bay window also creates a sitting space for visitors. The product is scattered throughout the facade, breaking the monotonous repetition. The static nature of the building is improved by the movement of the mirrors. Call it magic! is an incremental and adaptable design and with its dimensions can be added to many buildings.