huber staudt architekten
Zentrum für Psychiatrie Friedrichshafen
best architects 14
public buildings
Place
Friedrichshafen/Deutschland
Photos
Werner Huthmacher
Description
The new Psychiatric Centre is embedded in the campus of the Friedrichshafen Clinic, set on a southwest slope with picturesque orchards that drops slightly toward Lake Constance. The new building encloses a generously dimensioned green courtyard. A bridge frames the sweeping views of the hilly landscape and makes the natural slope tangible even in the courtyard. From the entrance hall on the ground floor a view opens up overlooking the large patient garden and reaching all the way to nearby Lake Constance. Two psychiatric nursing wards with a total of 54 beds are arranged on the ground floor, while upstairs there is a 26-bed psychosomatic medicine ward. The lower level on the slope side opens onto the delivery entrance and houses further therapy rooms. The surfaces are dominated by the dual materials of exposed concrete and untreated wood. The façade elements of vertically arranged untreated wood profiles are transparent and lend the building a light and airy feel. The precise yet sensitive treatment of materials shows special respect for the patients and their needs.