"The interior of the box mimics the idea of being under a roof, giving the user a familiar sensation of comfort and helping them to calm down before the treatment," architect Paulo Merlini explained.

Rows of round white lamps illuminate the reception and plant pots hang over a raised bed of gravel at the back of the entrance space, beyond which the brightly lit treatment rooms are located.

A small window has been inserted into the corner of the white box to allow light to pass through to the upper floor, where there's a dark grey waiting area outside a laboratory and meeting room.

The upper level is accessed via a floating white staircase alongside the mirrored side wall of the reception.

We've featured lots of unusual dentists, including a Japanese clinic arranged in a minimalist white grid and a practice in Portugal divided by stripy glass screens – see all dentists on Dezeen.

Other projects in Porto we've featured include an apartment with a hammock hanging over the stairs and a restaurant inside a nineteenth century townhouse – see all architecture in Porto.

Photographs are by Joao Morgado.

Here's some information from the architect:

The uncommon form, narrowness, vertical amplitude of the space and the two big glass façades placed on the main and back façade defined the organization of the spaces.

The reception and waiting room is characterised by a big white box that floats in the air, playing with the vertical amplitude of the space.

The interior of the box mimics the idea of being under a roof, giving the user a familiar sensation of comfort and helping them to calm down before the treatment.

From the "roof" a series of lamps float in the air, filling the space with light. The floating box stops the excessive light and consequent heat coming from the main facade by the end of the day.

On the other hand its big mass pushes the rest of the working spaces to the back façade. This receives a great sky light, with the ideal conditions for working.

Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan

The post Dental Clinic in Porto
by Paulo Merlini appeared first on Dezeen.

"There's been a lot of discussion lately about how design has lost its sense of social responsibility and indeed, a lot of the stuff we publish on Dezeen doesn't set out to make the world a better place," says Fairs. "Meanwhile there are vast tracts of human experience that are virtually design-free zones. Hospitals wards fall into this category - they've barely changed since the days of Florence Nightingale and are often miserable, frustrating places to stay or visit."

"Priestmangoode have, off their own backs, rethought the hospital ward with the same care they might apply to a hotel or passenger jet interior. Even the name Recovery Lounge makes you feel better; so much more positive than Acute Care Ward or Critical Care Unit, which seem designed to scare patients."

"The Recovery Lounge is one of those ideas that isn't yet a reality, but deserves to be," he concludes.

Recovery Lounge by Priestmangoode

The name alone suggests a radically different approach to hospital design. Rather than a ward, which conjures images of rows of beds, this is a lounge where people can relax. As opposed to focussing on the illness or the medical procedure, it is a place for recovery. Recovery Lounge is a self-initiated project by Priestmangoode. The industrial designers have extensive experience in designing interiors for passenger jets, hotels and airports, and wanted to see if they could apply the lessons learned in those sectors to the neglected area of hospital interiors.

Intended for people recovering from minor operations, the lounge offers each patient their own zone, which is carefully oriented to maximise privacy. These zones are designed for comfort as well as efficiency, with furniture raised above the floor to allow easier cleaning, and push-button reclining beds like those found on aeroplanes.

The lounge borrows its staggered layout from first-class airline cabins, allowing more beds per square metre and improving sight lines, so staff can easily monitor patients and attend to their needs in a shorter amount of time. This in turn could save money by reducing the number of nurses required.

Recovery Lounge is part of a report published in 2010 by Priestmangoode called the Health Manifesto, which looks at how better hospital design could lead to health benefits for patients and significant cost savings for the NHS.

Read more about this project on Dezeen | Buy Dezeen Book of Ideas

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Reviews of Dezeen Book of Ideas

“From flip-flop art to a mirrored retreat in the sky” – Wall Street Journal

“The Sliding House and The Book of Ideas: Radical Thinking Required” – Forbes.com

“Fairs personally guides readers through the wonders of innovations like a balancing barn, a textile-skinned car, and the first aesthetically pleasing CFL — all of which share an ‘I wish I’d thought of that’ awe factor” – Sight Unseen

“Fabulous” – It’s Nice That

“Totally wonderful!” – Naomi Cleaver

“Handsomely repackages Dezeen’s coverage of the best in architectural, interior and design ideas” – Glasgow Herald

“Teeming with innovative projects handpicked by the people behind Dezeen … readers will be hard-pressed not to find something to gawk over in this intriguing new compendium of beautifully articulated concepts” – Dwell Asia

“Beautifully laid-out, to suit the content, and straight-shooting, non-convoluted descriptions make it user-friendly as well as eye-catching” – Lifestyle Magazine

The post Dezeen Book of Ideas: Recovery Lounge
by Priestmangoode appeared first on Dezeen.

Patterned with vertical stripes of green and black, the semi-transparent walls surround the reception and waiting area of the clinic and are made from recycled glass panels of different thicknesses.

"The inspiration came from a block of ice," architect Miguel Marques Venâncio told Dezeen, and explained how he wanted to "potentiate the reflections and the vibrations of the light, creating a perception of space that is constantly mutating."

Narrow recesses fold around the walls and ceilings, and are illuminated from behind to provide channels of light.

Apart from the colourful screens, the clinic has an all-white interior that is only interrupted by a handful of red and blue chairs within the three surgery rooms.

See more stories about dentists on Dezeen »

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here's some more information from MMVArquitecto:

The challenge is based on the re-interpretation of a Dental Clinic, in the search of a new clarity and spatial character.

The site is located on a first floor of a common building in the centre of Torres Vedras. The space requires a new image to provoke new atmospheres, new sensations.

The desire of creating a distinguished space in the city, more paused, contemplative, a space of reflection, leading to the discovery of the importance of silence and of spaces apparently empty yet full of drive.

An experimentation where the selection of materials is sustained by the nobleness of the materials. That experimentation is essentially realised with the immaterial architectural element, which is space.

Working with space, is determined by perception, paths, light, reflections, transparencies, fluidity.

The mass composed by a summary of recycled glasses, potentiates the reflections and the vibrations of the light, by creating a perception of space that is constantly mutating.

The search of a timeless space, with a plentitude of senses, where light is filtered in different ways, gives poetry to spaces, dignifying them.

Location: Torees Vedras, Portugal
Client: R. Leal
Architect: Migues Marques Venâncio

Collaborators: B. Pedrosa (project, digital images), V. Vázquez (project), M. Álvarez (project), T. Palos (models, drawings)
Construction supervision: MMVArquitecto
Construction company: António Manuel Nogueira Cesário

Plan - click above for larger image and key

Long section - click above for larger image

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MMVArquitecto appeared first on Dezeen.

G Clinic 7f is an extension to an existing clinic, providing a floor that's dedicated to male patients.

The perforated screens separate seating areas in the reception and waiting room, where blue, green and black sofas add colour to an otherwise white space.

Small squares also pierce holes in the surface of the reception desk and pale grey squares are painted onto the walls.

Other clinics we've featured include a dental surgery with rounded walls and a clinic in a shopping centre.

Photography is by Hiroshi Ueda.

Here's some text from KORI Architecture Office:

G Clinic 7F

After G clinic 8F was open, a doctor expanded floor space to 7th floor only for male hair restoration medical treatment because number of male patients increased more than a doctor expected.

As for hair restoration medical treatment, the time doctor spends with a patient is short. So there are many patients who are waiting for consulting and accounting. The voids on MDF(t=15mm) panels are arranged as to control meeting of eyes of patients and staff.

Click above for larger image

Void patterns is expanded on the sliding door, shelfs and wall paper. These layered patterns give feel of depth and sense of privacy.

Client: Dr. Kentaro Masaki
Design: Yushiro Arimoto, Maya Nishikori

Built Area: 106.83m2
Realization: February 2012

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and Arimoto Yushiro appeared first on Dezeen.

Spanish architects Estudio Hago have completed a dental surgery with walls of rounded wooden panels and white-tinted glass.

The surgery occupies a floor within an office block in Málaga.

Treatment rooms are lined up along the north side of the building so that they can benefit from even levels of natural light.

Offices and consultation rooms arranged in a row along the middle and their translucent walls allow some of this natural light to penetrate as far as the waiting room and reception on the other side.

We've featured a few interesting dental clinics on Dezeen, including one modelled on a drawing of a set of teeth. See them all here.

Photography is by Javier Callejas Sevilla.

Here's some more information from Estudio Hago:

DENTAL OFFICE

CONTINUOUS, CONSECUTIVE AND CONTIGUOUS

Spatial practices with white glass

This dental clinic is placed on the second floor of an office building. This project starts from seeing the clinic as a spatial complex and not as the combination of public and private fragments. In order to do so, we aim that several project and clinical aspects take part in the same spatial experience by organizing the flow of patients and the movement of medical personnel.

1. CONTINUOUS

Patients can perceive the idea of the clinic as a whole everywhere. The flow of people takes place all around the huge case made of translucent white glass going all over the clinic, from the reception to the waiting room and the medical rooms.

The flow of medical personnel fits into the batter of the vitreous wall. The medical activity takes place everywhere, from the inside of the case (laboratories and warehouse) to every single armchair in the medical rooms.

2. CONSECUTIVE

The functional programme becomes the image of the clinic, being the inside of the case the operations centre. The main uses follow in a consecutive way: reception-wait, perimetral corridor, laboratories-storage-sterilization-offices and medical rooms. The medical rooms are presented following the same plan and offering an infinite growth approach (as if there were three cases). These rooms are closed in order to accommodate the first visits and special treatments.

3. CONTIGUOUS

The spaces set out an organized exchange of materials, textures and reflexes that present contiguously different spatial experiences. The folded wood accommodates the waiting room and the reception. The high-gloss finishes flank the perimeter of the glass made case on the ceiling and on the floor.

We propose the powerful subtlety of changing the finish into the main figure in the space putting into dialogue the aesthetic area of the waiting room (with a domestic and soft finish) with the movement area of the vitreous perimeter (where the reflex shows the almost infinite in length and height space).

The result remains in the patient’s memory: a great space that represents a great medical team.

4. LIGHT EVERYWHERE

Glass and light form an alliance in order to cover all the spaces. The medical rooms are placed next to the perimeter of the façade (which is placed in the north) in order to take advantage of the constant natural lighting. The light is graduated through the glass so that it firstly floods into the working areas inside the case and then into the waiting areas.

Click above for larger image

Firm: Estudio Arquitectura Hago
Architects: Emilio Delgado Martos & Antonio Álvarez-Cienfuegos Rubio

Click above for larger image

Location: Málaga, Spain
Year of the project: 2011
Year of construction: 2011-2012
Area: 350 m2
Budget: 350.000 €
Engineering: Estudio Sinergia
Construction Company: Millangar Construcciones Costa del Sol
Wood: Carpintería Agüera
Glass: Cristal Era 2000

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