A Journey

BACKGROUND:
The Huntley Centre is an inpatient psychiatric unit at St Pancras hospital, made up of four wards. We worked on one of these: Laffan Ward. Laffan is a 16 bedded mixed sex ward, with patients aged 18-65 years. Laffan generally admits patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression and personality disorder. The majority of patients are detained under the Mental Health Act, but there are also “informal” patient who are there on a voluntary basis. People detained under the Mental Health Act will find themselves on the ward for prolonged periods.

THE BRIEF:
Staff at Laffan ward described the place as drab and visually unstimulating. They felt that the environment did not celebrate their patients and did not contribute to their recovery.
Our brief was to create an improved interior, that would give staff and patients talking points and encourage therapeutic relationships.
Due to the budget available a complete redesign of the ward was not feasible. Instead we were asked to create a ‘design intervention’ with maximum possible impact on the overall experience of spending time on Laffan.

IDEA:
We decided to focus on the main corridor of the ward, as this was a space frequently used by all patients, staff and visitors. In its original state the corridor felt very confined, dominated by rows of closed doors. In response we developed a series of ‘windows’ that open up to a sequence of hand-painted interconnected, evolving landscapes. As you walk along the corridor, a day unfolds: through the ‘windows’ a journey is revealed. As the sun first rises and eventually sets you notice somebody travelling alongside you: he rises to climb the highest mountain, she skis down the other side, he cycles across a bridge, she shines a light to find rest and shelter as eventually the night draws in.

The landscape illustrations with the traveller were developed partly in response to images created during a workshop we held on Laffan with staff and patients, during which participants reflected on meaningful places in their lives, and shared personal stories of the challenges they had to overcome to get there.