No stranger to
providing innovative therapy to its patients, Great
Ormond Street Hospital for Children has already been covered on these pages
for its interactive LED-illuminated wall that helps calm young visitors on
their way to surgery. Now the hospital has collaborated with Studio Weave to
reappropriate ugly pipework on the exterior of the building as the Lullaby Factory,
a system of musical tubes that lull patients to sleep with relaxing sounds.
Due to a
redevelopment of the infirmary, the building currently has a temporary space
that looks awkward and unsightly but can only be seen from inside the hospital.
In order to make this area useful, East-London based Studio Weave decided to
build on the existing aesthetic of the space, transforming the utilitarian
pipework into an imaginative system of horns and woodwind instruments that play
lullabies. Children are encouraged to see the building opposite as the Lullaby
Factory, which manufactures soothing sounds to help patients recover from their
illnesses. The pieces are in reality created by composer and sound artist
Jessica Curry, and can be heard through special listening pipes, or by tuning
into the Lullaby Factory radio station.
The concept helps
revitalize an otherwise unused and unpleasant space and improves young
patients’ experience of hospital stays, contributing to their wellbeing. How
else can good design be used to transform ordinary facades into something more
creative and uplifting?
