UMC Utrecht Visual quality plan
UMC Utrecht Visual quality plan
UMC Utrecht Visual quality plan
An interior as an urban planning task
The UMC Utrecht today: cluttered and out of date
The existing UMC Utrecht building, designed by EGM in 1989, has been expanded over the years with new medical clusters, including the WKZ and the Central Military Hospital. The interior has also often been modified over time and is therefore cluttered. Materials and colors have been used inconsistently, which is bad for the appearance of the building and for wayfinding; the layout and finish of the spaces often appear randomly chosen and not focused on the different users - patients, visitors, students and staff.
One University Medical Center
When it comes to the renovation task, the hospital needs longer lines and more conscious choices about logistics and quality of stay. That is why, and also because of the scale of the renovation, it was decided to first have a new visual quality plan drawn up — a plan that will give direction to all separate interior designs. As a pilot, Atelier PRO developed a visual quality plan for a number of departments of the WKZ, the children's hospital at UMC Utrecht; this successful pilot formed the basis of the BKP for the entire complex. Atelier PRO is also supervising the plan.
Approaching the building as a city
Developing a visual quality plan for a 500,000 m² university hospital is a special task, because it goes far beyond designing; it's about reducing the task to its essence, and laying down the conditions for a design from there. The visual quality plan is a design tool that is normally used for urban planning, and that fits well with the size of UMC Utrecht - due to its surface, the complex has almost the character of a city. For this task, atelier PRO has therefore applied an urban way of thinking to an interior.
Baseline: creating peace in the interior
What sets our approach apart is the distinction between a 'baseline' and 'counterpoints'. The baseline is the continuous color and material palette for the 'general' interior; it is timeless but not devoid of atmosphere, has a long lifespan thanks to the use of neutral colors and materials and creates peace. However, rest can only be experienced if there is also dynamism, one of the reasons why counterpoints are also needed.
Counterpoints: specialization in special places
A hospital is a building where people experience a series of often intense emotions. Where it is necessary to support the moods of patients, family and employees, we have increased counterpoints; these are spaces and places where there is reason to create a different atmosphere. These can be public places - the entrance, the grand café, the theater - but also enclosed spaces - family rooms, funeral homes and staff rooms. What these places have in common is their own, special appearance that makes them recognisable and distinguishes them from the general interior.
The experience matrix: determining the sense of space
To determine which experience suits which room, atelier PRO has developed a special tool: the experience matrix. This matrix serves as a tool to describe the feeling of a certain type of space, because this way it is much easier to include in interior design. In the grand café, for example, patients and visitors want to escape from the medical world and be among people; in a funeral home, there is a great need for privacy. This is a difference that people can experience without the design having to make huge leaps and bounds.
A sleeping beauty wakes up
The new BKP ensures that the interiors of UMC Utrecht take a big leap, but also that the existing qualities of the building - the beautiful light through the skylights, the open plan with plenty of space for greenery - become visible again. The renovated hospital exudes calm, is warm but also innovative, and is easy to read. To help people with this, Silo - Agency for spatial branding developed a spatial identity including wayfinding and digital signage. The result is an inner world that makes the character of UMC Utrecht tangible.
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