It’s safe to say architect Matteo Thun isn’t a fan of hospitals. “The food is horrible, the rooms are ugly, and your pajamas are terrible—you are just surrounded by things you don’t like,” he says. Seeing an industry ripe for revolution—and motivated to change its institutionalized unpleasantness—Thun, on a whim, submitted a proposal to an international competition calling for a new hospital wing at Germany’s largest orthopedic center to accommodate pre- and post-operative patients, as well as those requiring therapeutic treatments.
Forty-five miles southwest of Leipzig, on the outskirts of the town of Eisenberg, the Waldkliniken Eisenberg sits within the Thuringian Forest, one of the most densely wooded landscapes in Germany. Idyllic site aside, the facility was in need of a revamp. Of the clinic’s three buildings, two, now slated to be demolished, dated back to the days of the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). To meet the rigid criteria of the reunited country’s public health-care system, the competition’s brief challenged applicants to comfortably fit 246 beds in 128 patient rooms, most for two occupants; 13 rooms would be set aside for single patients with private health insurance. The budget of $83 million was nonnegotiable.
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