You know you are sick when you enter a hospital. Otherwise you wouldn’t go there. The large buildings with their grand receptions areas are not places, where you hang out just for fun. But the new Healthcare Center for Cancer Patients in Copenhagen designed by Nord Architects aims to be just that: a place where you come to get better, get knowledge – and have fun.

“Research shows that architecture in itself can be healing and have a positive influence on peoples’ recovery. The key is to have a human scale in the architecture and create physical surroundings with a homey atmosphere”

Nord Architects is not unfamiliar with reinventing institutions. They are almost the ghost busters of Danish architecture. The guys you call in when you are tired of looking at the same old bricks and need to reshuffle your organization. The healthcare centre is no exception. The demand was clear and simple: create a healthcare center which is more like a home and less like a hospital. The building should be iconic and create awareness of cancer without stigmatizing the patients. In many ways a contradiction in terms, but Nord Architects solved the puzzle by designing a series of smaller houses shaped like traditional houses. The houses were then connected by a raised folded roof shaped like the Japanese paper art origami. In that way the building becomes a landmark with plenty of space without losing the comforting scale for the individual.