German Domus shows you examples where plants are integrated into architecture, thus providing a place of refuge. The Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Spital in Vienna by Nickl & Partner Architekten AG has green roof terraces, just like the Psychiatric Clinic in Slagelse. In the clinical field, above all, it is enormously important to turn back to nature: in this sensitive phase when the human body has been weakened and is highly receptive to external stimuli, it is especially necessary to pay attention to the effect of architecture. Here is a second point on which this issue focuses: buildings for health, especially hospitals. Spending time in a hospital is a situation that probably everyone wishes to avoid. Whether we are patients or family members, this is a place of distress, one of the environments that we fear. Here, of all places, where a sensitive, emphatic, shaping touch is needed, surroundings with a human feel are in short supply. However, a process of rethinking is perceptible. Many studies stress the positive influence of architecture on human healing, and they should therefore also be of interest economically. Because when people get well faster, they occupy a bed for a shorter time.
With the new office building of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Turin, we also present a work that does not merely put plants in big atria, but also thinks ecologically and is open to the residents of the city. The Fraunhofer Institut prophesies that the interior design of offices, too, is becoming more sustainable and has moved into 50Hertz in Berlin, which was fitted out by the workplace designers Kinzo. To find out more about Kinzo, look at the Domus section “Unsere Feinde, unsere Freunde”.
The Canary Wharf Crossrail station in London by Foster + Partners is planned as a new hub that will not only relieve the pressure on public transport in the city but also provide a space to breathe in the covered roof garden. Here membrane cushions made from ETFE provide high-performance insulation, creating a micro-climate for unusual species of plants.
The Feedback section takes us to Osaka, where Tadao Ando was born and founded his architecture practice in 1969, although he never studied architecture. Further north, in Tokyo, a store for architectural models was recently opened. It is open to the public, and in the House Vision exhibition has even realised walk-through models.
