Interior Design of Sacred Spaces in Health Care Facilities
Interfaith redesign of the Memorial Chapel at Mission Hospitals, Inc. by Jaan Ferree
by Elizabeth Kirwin
An interview with Jaan Ferree, an interior designer in Asheville, North Carolina, reveals that interior design in health care environments is headed in a new direction. In order to honor people from all faith backgrounds, interdenominational interior design concepts are implemented in public spaces where personal reflection, spiritual comfort, and peace are sought by all.
Ferree is an interior designer with a specialty in creating sacred spaces for health care environments. She works and resides in Asheville, North Carolina. Her most recent work, a re-design of the Saint Joseph Campus Chapel of Mission Hospital, was completed between 2005-2008. In 2007 she completed an interfaith design of the Memorial Campus Chapel of Mission Hospital. In both interior design projects, Ferree worked to create sacred space that appealed to an interfaith community. She planned and executed her design alongside a committee of hospital administrators, chaplains and community representatives.
Ferree has worked on other interior design projects for public spaces, too. Most notably, Ferree has installed meditation gardens and labyrinths at the Valle Crucis Conference Center. The conference center is sacred ground in the Blue Ridge Mountains and serves as a retreat and learning center for many different types of faith based groups.
Q. Why do people need interfaith sacred spaces at institutions such as hospitals, health care facilities and retirement communities?
A. It’s not enough to have a chapel or a church on a health care or retirement community campus anymore. Sacred space needs to be accessed by people of diverse backgrounds and faith groups for reflection at critical moments in their lives. People of no faith also need to be welcomed into sacred spaces.
Q. How would a sacred space differ from a chapel?
A. There’s not much difference at all, except in the symbols chosen. When a person is in a place like a hospital or a hospice, he or she is very likely in a state of fear, or feeling as if his or her life is unsettled, because a loved one is ill or even dying. A sacred space creates a place ‘away’ where an individual can have respite from painful emotions, chaos and confusion. It’s important to access the quiet places within oneself sometimes, honor intuition, and reclaim a sense of hope. A sacred space provides a place for this.
Q. What sort of symbols have you chosen to convey an interfaith theme in interior design?
A. Without stressing one faith community or another, I have included symbols that are welcoming to all. I’ve used handcrafted objects commissioned by local artisans. Many of the symbols created embody the elements of nature and are made from wood, stone and glass. The fountain is in place because moving water is comforting, and the impression of fire present in the lamps represents illumination. A journaling table is available for reflection, and a labyrinth has been embedded in the floor for prayer walks or self-reflection through contemplation of the image.
Q. You utilize handcrafted art in your interior design of sacred spaces. Why?
A. Craft art needs to be used in public spaces. We are in danger of losing our connection to the earth and each other. Craft art was lovingly tended by an artist’s hands. If art is purchased in the area of the interior design project, it is reflective of the culture that it is immersed within, and brings the appreciator closer to home by conveying a sense of locality.
Q. How will a sacred space in a hospital differ from the rest of the environment?
A. Creating a sacred space within a health care facility will help those who visit and inhabit a logical and analytical space (including physicians, nurses and staff) to employ their imaginative, hopeful and intuitive side. So, sacred spaces, re-designed chapels, meditation gardens and labyrinths in hospitals and other health care environments open a person up to a part of themselves that can access peace and balance in their lives. Everyone needs this.
Q. I know that you’ve attended ceremonies and even led prayer walks at the sacred spaces you create. What are some of the responses you’ve had from people to the interfaith theme of the interior design?
A. The responses to my work in creating sacred spaces that are comfortable for people of all faiths have been astounding. After the ceremony for the Saint Joseph Campus Chapel of Mission Hospital, a Native American woman commented that the circle was important to her tradition. The medicine wheel in the design made her feel at home. A Baha’i man said that in his faith, they believed in one God, and he felt that was honored. A Chaplain, who had just returned from Peru, complimented me on the choice of a ‘sun disc’ for the centerpiece behind the altar. I did not deliberately choose a sun disc, though she interpreted it as such. So, people bring their own backgrounds and interpretations to the symbols chosen for the sacred space. And it all works.
