Tunisia meets Essex

摘要

'The idea was to create an environment which didn't look institutional', says Proctor and Matthews' Constanze Leibrock, project architect for Hargood Close, a supported housing development for homeless people in Colchester which welcomed its first tenants in April. Cynics might dismiss this as a familiar case of an architect called on by the client to design a building which conceals its purpose and paying more attention to imagery than function: at worst an architectural euphemism. But this simplistic dichotomy is untenable in the case of supported housing, and by extension healthcare architecture, where the way buildings function is so embedded in perceptions. To draw an analogy, most of us prefer capable but also cordial and empathetic physicians, who don't overtly remind us that we must be processed efficiently, even seeming to take professional detachment to the point of disdain. Reciprocally, most architects see the design of sometimes-called 'buildings that care'which don't feel institutional as an opportunity to put their skills to good use with a level of empathy, rather than as an additional service.