Healing Rooms

As I lie in bed, listening to the orchestra of hospital sounds, I have an existential crisis. The fridge in the hallway is vibrating against the tiled wall. Two people are snoring, almost at the same time. Ambulances come in every few minutes. Someone is watching How I Met Your Mother. Something is buzzing. The sink faucet drips from time to time. I can’t seem to figure out why I actually came here anymore. I am alone in a hospital bed with only a plastic bag filled with my belongings, a stranger is sleeping 70 centimeters away from me, and I can’t help but think of how miserable I feel. Why am I here? No one actively takes care of me, and I am way more uncomfortable than I was at home. I feel lonely and confused, not really able to process why this whole experience that is supposed to help (in my mind at least) makes me feel so much worse. Being sick is so inherently stressful, how did I think I would immediately adapt to this whole situation? “Sterile white walls” — anyone would immediately think of a hospital room. “Hospital lights” — the white fluorescent lights everyone hates. “Hospital bed” — every time there’s a metal frame bed that’s slightly uncomfortable. Hospital rooms (and hospitals in general) have the reputation of being notoriously ugly, uncomfortable, and unwelcoming. As clinical efficiency has taken over patient-centered care, the hospital has turned into a techno-utopia, and care has turned into cure. Healing rooms is an exploration of patient rooms as an active component of healing. From the perspective of the patient, inviting visitors to experience the patient room as a space of vulnerability, routine disruption, and sensory overload. Hospital rooms—and hospitals in general—are often perceived as notoriously ugly, uncomfortable, and unwelcoming. As clinical efficiency has overtaken patient-centered care, the hospital has turned into a techno-utopia where care has been reduced to cure. Healing Rooms is an exploration of the patient room as an active component of healing. Approached from the perspective of the patient, the project invites visitors to experience the hospital room as a space of vulnerability, routine disruption, and sensory overload.