In late 2019, a completely new, ultra-modern and high-end hospital opened its doors for the first time: the Amphia at the Molengracht location in Breda. No less than 80,000 m2 of new construction was added to an existing building. Gispen furnished the entire building: over 9,000 products for reception areas, consulting rooms, patient rooms and living rooms. It goes without saying that everything had to be 100% operational when the new building was put into use. The health and well-being of the patients are paramount.
Major project, extensive tender procedure
The new hospital is designed in such a way that departments that regularly collaborate are situated close to one another. There are four towers, which all have their own focal point: Maternal and child health, Oncology, Cardiovascular care, and Intervention (from Emergency Room to Operating Rooms). Visitors first enter a central hall. From there, they pass through a spacious corridor, called the Passage, to be automatically guided to their destination in either the new or old building. Amphia published a tender with several options for the interior design of the new building, a major project.
Tini Bakker, New Amphia project manager: “Six parties took part in a pitching round in which they shared their vision on healthcare and expounded on their furnishing proposals. We asked three parties for a quote. Two of them, including Gispen, provided an array of trial setups in the central reception area. It was apparent in everything that Gispen showed us that their furnishing methods and know-how were in line with our requests and vision on healthcare.”
Teamwork at its best
Teamwork was certainly key to this project. Peter van der Linden, Healthcare business manager at Gispen: “We really tackled the new layout as a team. The Gispen team consisted of Ed Wulterkens as project manager, Nelleke Lagerwerf as the interior architect and myself as sales manager. We worked closely together with our partners at Amphia; short lines of communication with, for example, Tini Bakker and Mariska Ek.”
'Aesthetically, functionally and technically on point’
After the project team made its kick-off, Nelleke spent six weeks talking with other project team members as well as employees from all departments who would be working at the new building. Nelleke: “What will be installed in which area, and where will it be allocated exactly? The architect had provided us with a preliminary floor plan and colour schemes for each department. Mariska Ek, interior design and renovation project coordinator at Amphia, developed various experience concepts. These served as my starting points for the final layouts, products, materials and colour proposals. What we needed to keep in mind was that each department has its own colour scheme, but with the possibility of exchanging items. It had to be possible for some products to be used in different departments.”
Mariska: “We decided to give the patient rooms a tranquil interior design. More colour is found within the outpatient clinics, as well as the maternity and paediatric ward, of course. We constantly searched for the right balance: it all had to be just right – aesthetically, functionally and technically.”
Extra comfortable patient chairs promote recovery
Peter: “Amphia specifically asked for extra comfortable patient chairs to be installed in the patient rooms. Getting out of bed as quickly as possible and getting in motion will contribute to a patient’s recovery.” The consulting rooms are furnished with Gispen TM Doc: an organically shaped table which makes it easier for the doctor and patient to come up with a treatment plan together, with additional 4-legged Gispen Zinn visitors’ chairs. At the office areas, physicians and other employees make use of incredibly comfortable Zinn office chairs – Gispen supplied 1,000 of these. The central reception area is furnished with round Gispen TEAM tables and Nomi chairs. Moreover, various rooms are provided with children's furniture, such as Gispen Bronto chairs in different colours and plastic puppies from Magis. Gispen also supplied various medical-ergonomic products, of course, such as saddle stools from Medisit.
Clever logistics, moving in efficiently
The logistics were all thought out well in advance. Project Manager Ed: “We split the delivery into thirty partial deliveries. This made each delivery easy to monitor. As far as I'm concerned, this is a good example of an sustainable delivery method; only well-planned and targeted deliveries per building section. Every time desks were installed, an ICT team came in directly after to make everything operational. The detailed plans for furniture allocation and the floor plan that Nelleke had made were a great help to us. What also helped was that I was involved in the project early on. When you get to know a building well and you do so quickly, you can furnish the place more effectively and efficiently.”
