Room for birth and senses | DeMachinas

Room for birth and senses, Women’s Museum Hittisau, Austria

The “room for birth and senses” is a walk-in clay structure that makes it possible to experience the influence of space and surroundings on birth and health. Light, smell, colour, temperature, material, and surface properties all play an important role in our perception. 

It is an art project, at the same time a conversation opener for a larger vision where rooms and materials can support physiological and regenerative processes in healthcare environments. Inspired by Maggie’s Centres, offering non-clinical support, this prototype is a small segment of a larger concept idea of a contemporary maternity home in hospital proximity, by the organisation Geburtskultur a-z. 

Textures of refined lime Tadelakt and earthen plasters in shades of warm ochre, make you feel comforted inside. Its shell, a humorous ‘feather dress’, is made up of assortments of varying shingle types, painted in shades of deep reds. Its informality makes visitors comfortable from the moment they arrive.

Different childbearing postures can be adopted and tested out, using bespoke handles, grips and hanging cloth. Standing, walking, sitting, kneeling, hanging, immersion in water and moving support an active birth process. The space nurtures through its tactile nature, delivering support, care and offers empowerment above all else.

The environment is constantly working to reassure, stimulate and welcome - offering natural light, views out to the medicinal garden, at the same time allowing visitors to hide away, feel embraced.

It is an external part of the exhibition “birth culture. giving birth and being born”, created in spring 2020 and commissioned by the Frauenmuseum Hittisau. Its construction was possible thanks to more than 600 people from the region that supported the Crowdfunding campaign and many volunteers on site. It lives on as a beloved destination for locals, with the school, kinder garden and old peoples home right beside, as well as visitors to the Frauenmuseum Hittisau and the Bregenzerwald world heritage region.

Photography: Angela Lamprecht (https://lamprecht.biz/) / Laurenz Feinig (https://laurenzfeinig.com/)