[The therapeutic promises of a building. Vijverdal Community Mental Hospital 1969-2004].

Abstract

In 1972 the psychiatric hospital 'Vijverdal' opened its doors in Maastricht. The building of this Community Mental Hospital was reported to be 'revolutionary'. Inspired by American architectural concepts about the construction of hospitals, Vijverdal arose as a huge complex with a nine storey radial block of flats: a unique building in Dutch psychiatry. The first reactions were very positive. The imposing flat expressed psychiatric optimism and therapeutic promises. However, confronted by the dynamic developments in psychiatry at the end of the seventies, the hospital more and more appeared to be a therapeutic monstrum: the flat became a symbol of alienation and medical detachment. Adapting it to the new ideas about differentiation and de-concentration appeared difficult, however. Only in 2000 Vijverdal started a fundamental renovation. The flat will be torn down in 2006. This changing evaluation of Vijverdal makes us wonder about the biography of this psychiatric hospital. Which intentions and which psychiatric concepts inspired Vijverdal to be built? How functioned the building environment of Vijverdal in practice? Could the hospital be accommodated to the new notions and wishes about psychiatric care? Moreover, in what way did the architecture determine the history of Vijverdal? And eventually, how are new conceptions about psychiatric care translated in the present renovation and reconstruction of Vijverdal? Do therapeutic promises play a role again? The adventures of Vijverdal tell us about the risks of visionary architecture, but also that a building matters: the psychiatric patients appreciate the new houses and the privacy of a room for their own.