The Van der Hoeven Clinic – a centre for clinical forensic psychiatry – has created a new location with 27 apartments. When designing this building, OPL architects/re-designers have taken into account that the architecture matches the clinic’s treatment concepts. Within this framework, 21 SemperGreenwalls have been placed on the outside of the building, commissioned by Barten Groep. In total, the green facades cover 77 square meters (830 sqft).
Calming and increasing wellbeing
One of the ways in which nature-inclusive buildings provide an advantage to their users, is in the relaxing and healing properties of plants. Research has shown that living in a green environment positively affects people’s wellbeing. Furthermore, a study performed during the Covid-pandemic suggests that living in the vicinity of natural environments lowers the frequency of experiencing negative feelings like stress and sadness. Utilizing natural materials is often part of the ‘Healing Environment’ philosophy; the thought that a building can contribute to a patient’s experience during their visit, and can thus be conducive to people’s healing and positively affect their path to recovery.
Would you like to see another application of living walls in a treatment- and healthcare-related context? Take a look at the Radiotherapy Facility Apeldoorn here.
