Integrated Field have created a children's hospital aimed at making the experience of being in hospital less daunting, more comfortable and much more fun for its little patients by introducing elements for play and recreation.

The 6,000sq m (64,600sq ft) EKH Children's Hospital is located in Thailand's Samut Sakhon province and opened towards the end of 2019 after a two-year design and build process.

Recognising that hospitals can be such uncomfortable places for adults to visit that attempts have been made to make them more pleasant and welcoming environments, Integrated field explored what might be possible to do the same for children.

"With the children’s mindset, we discover that ‘fun’ is what every child instinctively looks for," they said. "Despite their different backgrounds, all kids want to live their lives looking for something fun to do. Using this element of ‘fun’ as the key becomes a great challenge considering how we have to approach the design from the perspective of a child."

The subsequent design is based on the philosophy that 'playing is healing' and the 'children's dimension' as the key concept.

"The children dimension is created using various physical shapes, colours and symbols materialised from the design language that is made up of delicately curved lines and deliberately avoids the perfect geometric forms," explained the studio.

Using this consciously nonclinical design language, every area of the hospital is designed with children's fun and play in mind, with animal cartoon motifs on the walls, curved doorways and soft, climbable furnishings.

There is a giant slide at the front of the building in the entrance hall, the waiting areas are all designed as playgrounds and there is a swimming pool with artificial clouds floating above it.

A palette of pastel colours creates an optimistic and calming environment that sparks imagination, while the use of indirect light in all hallways ensures the young patients aren't made uncomfortable by excessive brightness.