Mindelheim

landau + kindelbacher architects – interior designers designed the ‘Mindelheim’ in Germany.

Description from the architects:

The Schranne (grain market) in Mindelheim is part of a group of listed buildings and now houses the generously dimensioned practice rooms that occupy a complete story of the building.

The organizational procedures of a practice can be optimally structured in the loft-like, pillarless floor plan of the listed building. Two separate entrances – one private for normal patients and one private for doctors and private patients – give access to the room and receive the visitor with a freestanding sculpture. To keep the generous space effect, individual sculptural furniture elements divide the room into zones with the following functions:

- Registration and liquidation

- Waiting area, showcase, newspapers and magazines, workplace

- Brief waiting, treatment area and model cabinet

The conscious renouncement of color reinforces the clear-cut design of the sculptures without becoming obtrusive. The furniture, wall and ceiling thus constitute a spatial continuum, held together by the dark-gray Pandomo floor. The organic design of the furniture continues in the overarching illuminated ceiling. The novel lighting concept does without the typical long field lamps in the treatment area; different light colors create the different light moods.

An optimization of the functional procedures is seen in the separation of the public and private areas: whereas the patients’ room has been kept almost completely open, the auxiliary areas such as the laboratory, X-ray room, administration and social rooms are arranged in small units along the entire length of the room. The concept is: short routes for the doctors and simple orientation for the patients.