The Univiacom project, the first inpatient wellness hospital of it’s kind, is now under construction in the middle of the German countryside. The wellness hospital will integrate traditional medicine, nutrition therapy, herbal medicine, acupuncture, Reiki healing, therapeutic massage and light therapy. The small village of Lage is a partner in this enterprise, along with HCS, a German-based health care development company.
The concept is this: Build a hospital that is a center of research and practice attending to the whole human being- mind, body and spirit. Health education will be promoted along with practical notions of health improvement. Programs will be offered that will teach “guests,” there for rehabilitation or simply a rest, how to live a better quality of life. The practice of comprehensive medicine in this facility will mean that a guest may come for a week or two to recover from an injury or, say, a heart attack. But a guest might also come to lose weight, start a diabetes program, learn new ways of handling a chronic condition, manage pain, or heal from an emotional drama.
Individuals will be able to select from a menu of activities and treatments.. Homeopathic medicine, developed in Germany in the 19th century, will be practiced in tandem with traditional medicine and other alternative treatments.
A spa component will round out the offerings along with exercise classes and functional fitness training. This facility will be both a resort and a rehabilitation center. Even dentistry and ophthalmology services will be offered.
HCS wanted all elements of the design to reflect a sense of spirituality. The hospital is a modified spiral, an archetypal shape reproduced many time in nature. A guest arriving at the wooded site will enter the building via a winding path that leads through a garden. The two-story lobby space will open onto a magnificent skylight with a waterfall before winding around to smaller public space. Here the guest must choose to enter either the clinical consultation area or the rehabilitation and treatment area. The latter will be linked to a café and classrooms. Private guest rooms will be self contained and suited to wither high-acuity patients or those seeking a resort experience. All rooms will be accessible to those with mobility difficulties and will provide area for family members to spend to spend the night and cook meals. The room will have views to the outdoors as well as decks and living room areas.
Meditation gardens and a spiritual centerpiece are to be included in the common areas. The spiritual centerpiece will contain representations of nature – fire, water, and sculpture created from local stone. An exhibition kitchen will be associated closely with guest dining areas and will provide a platform for gourmet nutrition classes.
Participants in the Univiacom view it as a prototype for the design of future healthcare rehabilitation projects.
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Article Written By J.W. intitled "Staying Well"
