
Sound arms (prototype) with 3D soundscape. Courtesy The Rotterdam Eye Hospital
The New Institute presents Designing Health, an exhibition about health as a design domain. From September 21, 2013 to January 5, 2014 at The Design House in Eindhoven.
I would like to invite you to come to Eindhoven, lie back in an eye surgery chair, imagine the noises of a hospital around you -your head cradled by a set of sound arms- and experience a 3D soundscape designed for cataract sufferers as part of the preoperative care at the Rotterdam Eye Hospital. The work, a first of its kind, has been in use for four years.

foto Lizzy Kalisvaart voor Het Nieuwe Instituut
The Rotterdam Eye Hospital has recently been nominated for the Dutch Design Award: “In the organisation of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital, design is an intrinsic quality made visible through the intensive cooperation with various creative disciplines. The effort to make the patients’ and visitors’ experience the primary consideration is noticeable across all levels.”
Manufacturer Sound arms Robert Bosch Sound.
Rockmed plc supplied the state-of-the-art eye surgery chair iMoc Ophtha.