Located in Ataşehir, one of Istanbul’s fastest developing districts, the-350-square-meter clinic consists of 6 doctor offices, labs, waiting and staff areas.

The design is a direct result of a negotiation between two somewhat contradictory approaches. First, it is a health space that requires hygiene conditions due to its main function. It is a clinic dominated by light colors, especially white, and where functions and devices are very defined. Since clinics are function-oriented places, they often demand a minimalist design approach and are used as such.

On the other hand, children are the next main users after doctors. Children are naturally attracted to different colors, playful spaces and visuals. Most of the child-oriented designs do not handle these elements in the right way and unfortunately the spaces made for children border on Kitsch.

Here, the clinic has determined the main planning fiction, and space dimensions, layout decisions and locations have been handled in terms of the maximum efficient use of a health space. Child-oriented design, on the other hand, revealed the interior architecture of these spaces: issues such as general color – visual use, spatial perception and experiences, etc. were mostly examined through the eyes of children and the main approach decision to be adopted by them was determined and the interior design was handled within the framework of this approach.

The main approach mentioned here is to bring the design elements that will enable the incoming patients to adopt the space as the main elements of the whole project, both to maintain the design integrity and to provide users with a holistic space experience. In this context, colors, visuals and playgrounds stand out as the three main elements that complement each other.

A basic color was chosen to define each doctor’s room, and the interior of the room was designed with that color and complementary background tones. Coatings and movement furniture colors were also determined according to this palette. These colors not only define the doctors’ rooms, but also become a floor orientation element that is followed from the entrance to the doctor’s room in the main corridor. In this way, even “tiny” illiterate patients can find their doctor’s room without needing anyone’s help.

Animals, especially the hippopotamus, are an important element in the employer’s corporate identity and have been used in advertisements and announcements for years, becoming an iconic figure identified with the organization. The design team allocated the appropriate walls of each space to be used by the children for the mural works to be created specifically for the space, and even made the first sketches themselves. Inspired by the space visuals and sketches, the artist created all the visuals complementing the spaces from a single hand. The fact that these works were site-specific and created by a single artist turned these visuals into a common element that unified the spaces, and the clinic was transformed into a living art museum.

Finally, play is another prominent architectural element, especially in waiting areas. Walls, columns, niches are easily transformed into play/experience areas for children, allowing waiting patients to spend their time playing games. In order to prevent young children from getting bored in a short time, this experience has been transformed into different spatial manifestations: a metal wall where they can play with magnet toys, a column-tree under which they can sit and paint, and toy shelves where they can take different toys and use them are scattered throughout the common areas of the project.

As a result, the Alle Kids project is a contemporary example of how spaces that meet all the technical requirements and hygienic standards of a healthy space can also be fun and playful.

Design: Studio Pines Mimarlik Tasarim
Design Team: Volkan Taskin, Fadime Kul Taskin, Ahmet Berk Hot
Contractor: Atelye 98
Photography: Hacer Bozkurt | Studio Hacer Bozkurt