A mural in a hospital corridor

The brief was a wall people would look at rather than through. What we printed across the Mediclinic group, and why the finish had to come first.

Hospital corridors are long, evenly lit and largely featureless, and people walk them at the worst moments of their lives. It is a hard place to put decoration and an easy place to make things better.

Our work across the Mediclinic group runs to three quite different walls. A vineyard landscape in a lift lobby. A Cape Dutch streetscape down the length of a corridor, printed in soft monochrome so it reads as depth rather than as a picture. And palms through the consulting and waiting rooms, which are the spaces where people sit and wait.

The reason this is possible at all is the finish, not the artwork. A healthcare wall is cleaned constantly and to a standard, so anything printed on it has to be washable and stay washable. We print with UV cured resin inks, and the surface takes that cleaning without lifting or fading. If it could not, none of these walls would exist.

The second thing that made it work is that a corridor is a shape, not a rectangle. A streetscape along a corridor is seen at an angle and in passing, almost never straight on, so it is composed for that. A framed picture in the same position is seen edge-on and is effectively invisible.

The last thing is quiet and it matters. Nothing on these walls is branded, and nothing is cheerful at you. The brief was a wall people would look at rather than through, and that is a lower bar than most decoration sets itself and a much more useful one.

We have printed for hospitals, clinics and consulting rooms across the country. If you are refurbishing one, the conversation starts with the cleaning specification rather than the design.