UCP on The Architect and Architectenweb
The new UCP has now been officially completed and photographed, and the project was immediately in the spotlight, including articles on The Architect and Architect web - who described the UMCG's new psychiatric department as “the most normal building on the hospital grounds”.
Normality was therefore one of the starting points for the design — a collaboration between atelier PRO and Vakwerk Architects. We chose to give the building the appearance of a hospital as little as possible: for example, all rooms have curtains - including the patient rooms, so people can control their own day; a lot of fixed furniture - to create a warm, dressed atmosphere -- and window sills were designed that are wide enough to sit in, with a view of the green courtyard or the outside world. In the patient rooms, they can even be used for “rooming-in”, allowing partners and family members to stay overnight — unique in psychiatric care.
”The new UCP is an ode to the window sill: the window sill as an informal place to sit. A window niche is a small space in a large space that gives you two things at the same time: security and choice — a choice to retire or participate. And it's a place between inside and out: you can be part of the people in the space, or dream away to the world. Things that are all important for vulnerable people, such as in a psychiatric ward.” Dorte Kristensen.
The new UCP feels more like a 'home' than the 'heavy' feeling of a mental institution. At the same time, there is also a lot of space in the building for research and education. Indeed, the UMCG wants to give people with a psychiatric illness the best diagnosis and treatment, and scientific research plays an important role in this. The new UCP has thus become a safe and friendly home environment for patients, where employees and researchers can do their work in a safe and streamlined way at the same time.
