Abstract

Significant literature in the fields of medical therapeutics and social services identifies how certain designed spaces create stress and disease, yet comparatively little has been written about the opposite – how enriched building design can act as a non-invasive therapeutic treatment to not just reduce stress but also increase hope, induce a positive range of background bodily feelings, thereby intentionally supporting our neurological health and wellbeing, and enhance mind health. The Hemsley Cancer Center explores these concepts as a central point of departure for the building’s design.

Environmental Enrichment (EE), (Hebb E, 1949) points to the quality of the environment as a substantial influencer on wellbeing, intelligence, and longevity, as well as what we know intuitively – enriched environments also uplift us and enhance mind health.

The reasons for this are multifaceted: on a neurobiological level, feeling good equates to lowering excessive cortisol levels (the stress/anxiety hormone), which reduce the incidence rates of high blood pressure, heart problems, headaches, and immune system deficiencies. Importantly, EEs also enhance learning, memory, creativity, perception, empathy, emotions and social interaction, while strengthening neural networks.

Israel’s newest, most advanced cancer centre, known as the ‘butterfly’, is a six-storey, 12,000-square-metre centre providing comprehensive oncology care, including a Radiotherapy Institute. The vision of this centre is to recognise that the emotional needs of cancer patients are often as important as their practical and medical ones. Typically, oncologists pursue a biologically oriented model to treat cancer, however, at the Hemsley Cancer Center, oncologists are using the building’s design as a non-invasive therapeutic treatment, linked to the study of hopefulness to enhance survival among patients, based on an immersive multi-modal sensory enriched environment experience, including sight, sound and touch.

The multi-floor facility includes: four radiotherapy treatment rooms and related services on the lower levels; chemotherapy, outpatient services, palliative care and oncology day hospital, and multiple research and teaching facilities on the mid levels; and a dedicated family lounge, library and living room, and adjacent exterior gardens and covered terraces on the upper level; all of which surrounds a multi-level central skylit terrace and garden central atrium.

The centre opened in November 2022 and was designed by Canadian-based Farrow Partners and Jerusalem-based Rubinstein-Ofer Architects.