Psychiatric Clinic

This clinic is laid out in the form of an ‘H’, and you grasp its unity by virtue of its angles. The way into the entrance courtyard is slipped into the fold of the smaller wing, and this space – already more intimate than the neighbouring urban forms – is revealed only at the last moment. The clinic is red, a red punctuated by the gold of the windows. Close up, this red turns out to be a combination of the varied hues of the concrete mass: sepias, blood-reds, oranges, mauves that blend gradually, affording glimpses of surfaces where colours run together. The overall effect is of a right-angular sculpted stone surface where the soft whiteness of cement grout sets off the bright little brass caps aligned with the spacers. The mass is red yet at the same time muted: it marks off this institution as quite special amid the grey townscape. Only the gold of the window-frames and venetian blinds is carried inside to penetrate the interiors of the white rooms.