In Rennes, healthcare professionals and patients at the Eugène Marquis Center are involved in a project aimed at improving hospital conditions and the well-being of people undergoing brachytherapy, by redesigning the sensory environment of the treatment rooms.
The Eugène Marquis Regional Cancer Center in Rennes is committed to improving the well-being of patients receiving brachytherapy. Over two years, designer Antoinette Parrau worked with patients and staff, in partnership with 40mcube and with the support of DRAC Bretagne, ARS Bretagne and the City of Rennes.
Drawing on her personal experience and her expertise as a designer, Antoinette Parrau hopes that her project, Ressources, will contribute to the well-being of people undergoing brachytherapy. This cancer treatment is a form of radiotherapy that involves placing radioactive sources in contact with, or inside, the tumour. To help patients cope with a treatment that can be invasive and painful—and to better tolerate hospital stays and the isolation they can entail—the designer created a series of works and objects.
In each treatment room, Antoinette Parrau installed lighting devices offering six different programmes, each creating a distinct atmosphere: energising, comforting, warm, gentle or restorative. She also designed boxes specifically for this context, containing several objects made available to patients during their stay to make daily life easier. Each object proposes a relaxing, stress-relieving or recreational activity, helping patients to focus and regain a sense of calm. Patients can activate them according to their needs and wishes, at their own pace, and, if they choose, follow video tutorials created by the artist. They are invited to carry out simple artistic gestures and gentle sensory experiences: knucklebones for playful divination, stones to handle, yoga-inspired finger exercises, and more. Through Ressources, Antoinette Parrau aims to humanise the brachytherapy rooms and contribute to patient care by helping people better cope with the constraints of hospitalisation.
