Sensory Healing Room

Interior Design —

Reddymade designed this prototypical hospital room as a “sensory healing space” to be inserted into a standard hospital room space as an experimental “spatial prescription” to amplify the medical treatment of patients suffering from disorders of consciousness, which impair self-awareness and interaction with the environment. Examples are a coma, a vegetative state, or a minimally conscious state. The concept was created in collaboration with the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University.

Our design goal was to promote regular wake/sleep cycles by regulating sensory input while minimizing hospital staff and atmospheric disruptions. The room is designed to have several zones divided by curtains that block sound and light. The primary zone is a pod which envelops and insulates the patient from the harsh environment of the hospital setting. Within the patient pod is a dome that the staff can customize to project the sky mimicking the outside. Another zone is for the parents who come by to sit and read while the patient is sleeping or undergoing therapy. It’s also a place where the parent can hold their child for comfort or as a part of therapy. The third zone is the therapy zone where doctors and therapists can help the patient. Use of interactive technology with a large screen that projects images for the patient to respond to visually and provide tactile stimuli during therapy sessions. The fourth zone is the staff zone which is outside of the patient pod and the parent zone, where the staff can access and monitor the patient without disruptions.

The four senses (sight, sound, touch, and smell) are carefully monitored and adjusted by the hospital staff to promote and facilitate the well-being of the patient, while maintaining strict hospital requirements for the medical equipment and ventilation.