Rehabilitation in the park that rubs off on everyday life
MarselisborgCentret wanted a recreational park for patients and visitors. The park also had to provide training opportunities so that the centre's therapists could go outside to exercise with their patients.
For the park, Keingart Space Activators designed a series of simple training installations made from oak sleepers, which aesthetically blended into the surroundings. These were developed together with the centre’s therapists and professionals, and we produced and assembled them.
The design has a triple aim – it must be suitable for training exercises, as resting areas for those walking through the park, and also serve as play equipment.
The training facilities are a sub-part of a larger project to establish the city park SPARK, designed by Kristine Jensen Landscape & Arkitektur.
The design meets the centre's treatment philosophy
In Keingart's assignment, the therapists provided a dogma for the design:
Specific training machines were prohibited, and everything had to be made from oak sleepers.
Partner and architect in Keingart Flemming Overgaard says:
“The fact that it's all made of oak is partly an aesthetic choice to create a recognisability and homogeneity. But it’s also essential from a rehabilitation and health professional perspective
The centre helped to prepare a compendium on their philosophy around outdoor rehabilitation, which describes, among other things, the elements desirable to have available.
They were concerned that the training installations should be something that patients or customers would come across in their daily lives - so that they would start saying to themselves
- Oh look there’s a small elevation there... Or there’s something I could sit on and get back up from.
This mean they wanted elements that were more natural, so similar to elements
you would find in your own surroundings, out in the woods or at the bus stop”.
Prototypes developed by sticks sent in the post
In the spring of 2020 Keingart had held workshops with a group of the centre's therapists to gain knowledge about training opportunities and build setups that could form the basis for prototypes.
With the COVID lockdown, things had to be done a little differently. Instead, Keingart sent packages to the professional workshop participants, containing small sticks that represented the sleepers. This allowed the participants to build the setups themselves, take pictures of them and send their proposals to Keingart.
Flemming Overgaard says:
"There was a real variety in the way the sleepers were put together, and they formed a whole back catalogue from which we picked a few to work from.
Some of the training installations are almost 1-to-1 replicas of the therapists’ suggestions. Others we further developed or are combinations of different suggestions. Finally, we put them in the landscape together with the builder. First on the plan, and then we took over to check them all”.
Ambiguous elements
The design is toned down and consists of ambiguous elements that can be used in several ways.
This means that you can go outside with a therapist or trainer who can use the elements to perform specific exercises with you. However, patients can also use the elements to try their own exercises.
Many studies show that older people in particular, if they come across a specific piece of training equipment in public, they always get a little worried about whether they are doing things right.
The idea behind Keingart's design is that the training installations are so ambiguous in design that you never feel like you’re doing it wrong.
The design is such that you can train at different levels. The largest of the installations mirrors itself and has dual functions for the instructor to be able to demonstrate an exercise that the patient can do in parallel.
Hybrids
Is it ambiguous and multifunctional and modern?
"One of the things we are currently working on is creating new combinations or hybrids and more compact facilities", says Flemming Overgaard.
"In the past, areas were planned with a sports field for specific sports, such as a big green football pitch, and a separate recreational area for Sunday walks and sunbathing, which was also a nature area.
I envisage us working with hybrids more in the future. In fact, we’ve already begun working this way, incorporating opportunities for sport into recreational parks, which have a more natural feel to them with wild nature as opposed to neat, staged city parks with their neatly mowed lawns and trimmed hedges.
This is also an integration exercise, getting the not so active to mix with the more active. It could even inspire new communities".
