An Unconventional Reception Area at Westend Medical Centre, Frankfurt

When visitors and patients enter the Westend Medical Centre Reception Area they are met immediately by a light, open and clean ambiance. The Centre which is a privately owned surgical clinic located in the western part of the city of Frankfurt, has 25 different areas of expertise that deal with both outpatients and inpatients.

Dr. Nikolaj Belz, the founder and the leading medical officer of the clinic, explains that: „We wanted to distance ourselves from the usual aesthetics of doctor’s offices and to remove the apparent unconquerable barrier between patients and staff .The entrance to the Clinic consequently presents a very special design challenge to change this situation. Dr Belz’s wife, the designer Margarita Belz developed a new concept using unusal desk shapes together with an attractive background illuminated panel.

The result has been to create in the entrance to the Clinic a low, concave shaped reception desk together with a similar shaped standing desk using Glacier White DuPont™ Corian® . Alexander Minakow, the business director and son of Margarita Belz, explains that: “We wanted to communicate to the patient an approach that was based upon an immediate relaxed atmosphere of openness and clarity. The intention was to remove the usual “fortress” mentality of “them and us” which distances patients and staff from each other.” Both Margarita and Alexander were convinced that: simple lines and organic shapes that can be produced with the high-tech surface material DuPont™ Corian® would further emphasise the intended concept. For Margarita Belz, the illuminated panel behind the desk has an equally important role in this concept. As it “highlights” what this Medical Centre is all about: “the human being.”

Alexander feels that a major reason for choosing Corian®: „is also that it has a non-porous surface, which is not susceptible to dirt, bacteria or mildew which is essential in a surgical hospital.Margarita and  Alexander awarded the contract for building the new Reception Centre to DuPont Quality Network partner Moser GmbH from Haslach. Managing Director Florian Wölfle and his team especially relished the challenging work in the project in particular the illuminated back wall which required the shapes and outlines of many people to be machined into the surface. They are an attractive feature and can be clearly seen even when the wall is not illuminated.

Design: Margarita Belz

Photos: N. Kazakov for DuPont™ Corian®