Re-Live is a novel pain treatment centre located in the north of Greece in the city of Ioannina.
The centre’s approach, under the guidance of Dr Patty Gatziani, Algiatrist and specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation, aims to comfort and manage pain placing focus on educating patients to acquire body awareness and improve their lifestyle.
For this special project CTRLZAK was asked to come up with a solution that would make patients feel at home. Working in this direction the industrial character of the building was transformed in a contemporary loft-like dwelling separated by mobile walls of thick curtains.
The visitor enters in a small waiting area delineated by the first layer of curtains characterized by two armchairs, a small coffee-table and a floor lamp reminiscent of a small traditional Greek living room. The space is then divided into two distinct areas: the rehabilitation space and a long corridor that guides visitors to the diverse treatment rooms and the doctor’s office.
A corridor between the blue curtains brings the guest to the treatment rooms.
The rehabilitation area is a spacious high ceiling room with plenty of natural light somewhere between a children’s playroom and a traditional, if not a bit unconventional, dance studio. Large mirrors characterise the main wall with their lines continuing that of the curtains that enclose the space leaving an opening towards the main corridor. Again, greek tradition leaves its mark with an installation of three vintage chandeliers hanging in the middle of the room above the floor mats and the other instruments of rehabilitation, all in bright primary colours.
The corridor leads to the first room behind the reception desk which is none other than the principal doctor’s office simply adorned with an old wooden library and a refurbished desk coupled with anatomical illustrations that assist the doctor in her explanations. Similar illustrations, but of more specific areas of the body, can be found in the room across the door which is dedicated to acupuncture, an ancient technique for pain treatment that is applied alongside contemporary methods like Bobath.
The centre promotes in fact a more encompassing approach that combines techniques that aim to treat but also to re-educate people about their daily life habits, posture and movements. The overall feeling of this room as in the other ones maintains a character between a house and a treatment centre where patients can relax, feel at home while maintaining the scientific character that reflects the doctor’s background and meticulous research on the field.
Re-Live is a special place created with human awareness at its’ core reflecting a concept that goes beyond symptomatic treatment and becomes a learning space that can treat the body and comfort the mind.
