Winning design for cancer counselling centre offers separate identity from existing hospital
Livsrum is EFFEKT's first prize project in the competition for a new cancer counselling centre at Næstved hospital in Denmark in collaboration with Hoffmann and Lyngkilde. The centre is designed as a cluster of seven small houses around two green outdoor spaces. Each house has its own specific function and together they form a coherent sequence of different spaces and functions such as a library, kitchen, conversation rooms, lounge, shops, gym, and wellness facilities.
The house offers a wide range of different rooms for informal advice, therapy and interaction with a focus on the users' comfort and wellbeing. A varying roof height and materials used means that the building will have its own unique architectural character that clearly distinguishes it from the surrounding hospital buildings.
With the location of the cancer counselling centre close to the hospital's cancer ward, it is set for a closer collaboration between hospital staff and the Danish Cancer Society. Construction is scheduled to begin in August 2012. Already in the spring of 2013 the Danish Cancer Society staff and volunteers in Næstved expects to offer cancer patients and caregivers a warm welcome in the new cancer counselling centre.
Leif Vestergaard Pedersen, CEO of the Danish Cancer Society is excited about the new project, which architecturally has managed to strike a tone in which wellbeing and openness is at play. Pedersen explains: "The house will feel homely and comfortable and provide room for all forms of activities. The centre will be located quite close to the hospital; this will make it easy for cancer patients and their relatives to come by for a cup of coffee and maybe a talk between treatments.”
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