Outdoor Care Retreat by Snøhetta

Description of project by Snøhetta

In the peaceful ambience of the forests only a short walking distance from two of Norway’s largest hospitals, Snøhetta has designed secluded wooden shelters aspiring to make hospitalization easier for patients and their families. Designed on behalf of the Friluftssykehuset Foundation, the first two Outdoor Care Retreats are located in vicinity to Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet and Sørlandet Sykehus Kristiansand in the South of Norway.

The space can be used for treatment and contemplation, and for spending time with relatives and friends away from the hospital corridors. The cabins are open to every patient connected to the hospitals regardless of disease group, and reservations are managed through a booking system.

The Outdoor Care Retreat is initiated by the Friluftssykehuset Foundation and developed in collaboration with the Department of Psychosomatics and CL-Child Psychiatry at Oslo University Hospital and Snøhetta. The aim of the project is to help somatically sick patients and their relatives get the best possible disease management.

The cabins are donated as a gift by the Friluftssykehuset Foundation to the hospitals. The project has received funding from private and public supporters, including Sparebankstiftelsen DNB, Gjensidigstiftelsen, Bergesenstiftelsen, the Children's Foundation OUH and the Norwegian Parliament. In addition, a number of suppliers sponsored the first cabins with building materials, amongst others Kvadrat, Kebony and Lindal Gruppen.

The vision is to build more Outdoor Care Retreats in vicinity to hospitals in Norway and abroad. The cabins are always adapted to the specific location in a way that requires minimal intervention in nature.