Cells, Hospital of the future

A site specific installation, designed by the architect Filippo Taidelli,

investigates the relationship between architecture, technology and healthcare,

where once Milan’s most ancient hospital was.

 

Inside the ancient Cortile dei Bagni courtyard, the architect Filippo Taidelli of the milanese studio FTA, stages a vision of the future in the relationship between man, architecture, technology and nature in the hospital of tomorrow. Cells will be on display at the University of Milan (Università degli Studi di Milano) from 16 to 28 April as part of the "INTERNI HOUSE IN MOTION 2018 - 20 YEARS" exhibition". The work aims to metaphorically synthesize the effects of the evolution of the world of healthcare and make them perceptible to the visitors through a site specific installation that immerses the visitor in a sensory experience.

 

Cells was born out of the experience that architect Taidelli has developed in the field of the design of social and healthcare facilities and is also owed to the research the architect has developed together with Humanitas University’s Professor of Internal Medicine Raffaello Furlan, and Dr. Michele Gatti of IBM Italy, Research & Business.

The installation, set in one of the most spectacular and most visited locations of Milan Design Week, consists of two glass structures or “cells” of equal size but with antithetical formal characteristics, which establish a visual dialogue by placing themselves at opposite corners of the courtyard. They represent the two complementary and apparently antithetical spirits of the healthcare of the future: on the one hand, the focus of interior design on transforming the hospital into a domestic space, on the other hand, the advent of the "virtual healthcare", the redefinition of the man-machine interface and consequent "dehospitalization".

 

The first cell, transparent and extroverted, is designed to expand the relationship with the environment as a therapeutic element; the second, introverted and reflective, projects the visitor into the "virtual" world, an atmosphere of science fiction evoked by an artificial window that can reproduce the effect of sunlight even at night.

Inside the cells are placed two monolithic stone-like structures, which like the wings of a theatre stage offer points of view for contemplating in one case the context and in the other the artificially created natural light. The visual experience is amplified by a sound and olfactory installation. In the virtual cell, a sound dialogue between an avatar and a human and a scent of incense evoke a place of futuristic meditation. In the other, the pungent smell of the Mediterranean maquis and the sound of domestic environments recall the outdoor life, the countryside and the land.

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