Polychromatic hospital – healing with color

Large, uniform spaces can be incredibly disorienting, negating any landmarks that help with navigation, and paralyzing all the senses. As Gernes describes, color is an easy way to solve these structural problems.

“I am not sure if I am tricked to believe I am in a circus or kindergarten, reminding me of joyful memories as a child, and if that is what is causing my brain to spark. Or if it is the colors themselves hitting my nervous system in just the right way. No matter what, it works wonders for me!” (Testimony of a Herlev Hospital patient)

When the power of art to engage the public both on a sensory and intellectual level is fully embraced, its presence in hospitals becomes a testament to a forward-thinking vision of health care – a medical vision of the body as a body experienced beyond its mere biological structure, a sensory entity indissolubly interconnected to its thinking brain.

“Colors cheer me up because you need them in here. You experience very emotional situations here when everything is horrible and you don’t feel like going on. The colors cheer me up and indicate that there’s a world outside where these colors can be found, and that’s why I’m here. So I can go out and experience those colors again, and not be here forever.” (Testimony of a leukemia patient at Herlev Hospital)