The postive impact of building-integrated art

Drawing on two recent Scandinavian mental healthcare projects where art has played a key role, Stence Guldager, Architect MAA, Business Area Manager, and Associated partner at Arkitema, argues that early selection and involvement of the artist, ‘allowing art and architecture to influence and support each other in the development process’, and giving the artist the maximum creative freedom, are key to ensuring that art installations have the optimal impact.

In a society where mental illness is a growing problem, and where we are challenged to provide adequate treatment facilities, it is increasingly relevant to speak about healing architecture and integrated art as factors in patients’ healing and wellbeing. To increase understanding of why healing architecture and integrated art are extremely relevant, I will aim in this article to shed light on how we – as architects – can contribute to increased wellbeing and a healing process through architecture. As an architect working with the healing environment as a natural part of the physical framework in healthcarerelated architecture, I have experienced how we actively implement this, and seen the results we achieve.

My aim will be to focus on ‘buildingintegrated’ art, where expression, materiality, and colours help define the healing environment. I will use examples from two Danish projects: AUH (Aaarhus University Hospital) Psychiatry, and Goedstrup Hospital (the Design in Mental Health Winner of Art Installation of the Year 2023), to illustrate how art has been integrated into the architecture – from the early planning stages, right through to the completed construction. The works of art addressed here are deeply embedded in the architecture, and are consciously used as an instrument and healer.