Re-Live, designed by CTRLZAK studio, is a novel pain treatment center, located in the north of Greece in the city of Ioannina. The center’s approach, under the guidance of Dr. Patty Gatziani, Algiatrist and specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation, aims to comfort and manage pain placing focus on educating patients to acquire body awareness and improve their lifestyle.
For this special project CTRLZAKwas asked to come up with a solution that would make patients feel at home. Working in this direction the industrial character of the building was transformed in a contemporary loft-like dwelling separated by mobile walls of thick curtains.
The visitor enters in a small waiting area delineated by the first layer of curtains characterized by two armchairs, a small coffee-table and a floor lamp reminiscentof a small traditional Greek living room.
“The space is then divided into two distinct areas: the rehabilitation space and a long corridor that guides visitors to the diverse treatment rooms and the doctor’s office”.
The rehabilitation area is a spacious high ceiling roomwith plenty of natural light somewhere between a children’s playroom and a traditional, if not a bit unconventional, dance studio. Large mirrors characterize the main wall with their lines continuing that of the curtains that enclose the space leaving an opening towards the main corridor.
Again Greek tradition leaves its mark with an installation of three vintage chandeliers hanging in the middle of the room above the floor mats and the other instruments of rehabilitation, all in bright primary colors.
The corridor leads to the first room behind the reception desk which is none other than the principal doctor’s office simply adorned with an old wooden library and a refurbished desk coupled with anatomical illustrations that assist the doctor in her explanations.
Similar illustrations, but of more specific areas of the body, can be found in the room across the door which is dedicated to acupuncture, an ancient technique for pain treatment that is applied alongside contemporary methods like Bobath (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobath_concept).
“The center promotes in fact a more encompassing approach that combines techniques that aim to treat but also to re-educate people about their daily life habits, posture and movements”.
The overall feeling of this room as in the other ones maintains a character between a house and a treatment centerwhere patients can relax and feel at home while maintaining the scientific character that reflects the doctor’s background and meticulous research on the field.
“Re-Live is a special place created with human awareness at its core reflecting a concept that goes beyond symptomatic treatment and becomes a learning space that can treat the body and comfort the mind”.
CTRLZAK is a hybrid studio that integrates diverse disciplines and forms of expressions. Founded by artists and designers Katia Meneghini and Thanos Zakopoulos, the studio’s creations are based on extensive research into humanity’s cultural history and the natural world that surrounds us in order to create a meaningful future. Due to its’ interdisciplinary approach CTRLZAK specializes in art direction while creating artworks, objects and spaces but above all points of reflection where form follows meaning. Through the use of semiotic tools within the creative process the studio conceives projects and orchestrates situations that surpass common aesthetic values operating on a deeper cognitive level, aspiring to make people consider their actions and the planet that we live in. CTRLZAK has been extensively covered by the international printed and digital press while their creations have been exhibited in galleries, museums and institutions all over the globe like the Venice Art Biennale, the Triennale in Milan, the CID-Grand Hornu, the London Design Biennial and the MAXXI to name a few.
Facts & Credits:
Project title: Re-Live Center, Typology: Novel pain treatment center, Location: Ioannina – Greece, Concept & Interior Design: CTRLZAK studio, Supervision – Technical Consultant: Thimios Apostolakis (TimAp Design Studio), Completion date: July 2021, Text description – Photography: CTRLZAK studio