Nickl & Partner Architekten AG, Man is the measure of all things. Installation view at Palazzo Bembo, 2016.

“Man is the measure of all things” - Protagoras famous doctrine - in architecture, was too often reduced to proportions and dimensions. It has manifested itself in design standards based on the needs for mobility, convenience, and safety. As architects, we need to know how much space a person needs in a room, how these rooms have to be positioned in order to make operations run smoothly, and how to place objects conveniently. But this knowledge does not create a livable space. If we want to create livable spaces we have to learn that human perception is the measure of all things. We have to learn that floor plans are the screen-plays of our daily life. They translate a person’s world into a livable building.
My design for a livable hospital is for a place where people can engage in communication, real analogue communication, supported by digital media where data can complement words. In this environment, patients and staff meet on one level, as equals. There are no virtual or physical boundaries, no partitioned offices, and colleagues meet spontaneously and informally. Patients and relatives are confronted not by locked doors, but by the everyday living reality of the hospital. Instead of dark corridors, there are spaces that flow into one another. There are bright, open meeting areas, small, private spaces, landscaped outdoor areas, and quiet places in which to work. But all have one thing in common: they are part of an environment that encourages conversation, both private and work-related. The high-tech areas where people’s lives are saved are modules within a greater whole. The greater the level of technology, the more space for preparation and conversation is assigned to these modules.
The Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Spital project in Vienna is a step towards this vision.