Recognition
Safe Niños: Healing Treasure
Designing for Social Impact
Role
Healing Treasure is an immersive healing spatial design project developed for COANIQUEM’s satellite campus in Antofagasta, Chile. The project brings illustration beyond 2D pages, where character design and environmental graphics are used to form a new holistic narrative strategy for burn patients to overcome their fear and anxiety.
Spatial Illustration
Character Design
Spatial Strategies
Animation
Teammate
Environmental Design: Hyejin Kim
Background
Every year, more than 7 million children across Latin America are victims of burn accidents. In Chile alone, 100,000 burn accidents occur, with the majority involving children under 5 years of age. Burn injuries are the third-leading cause of death in children under 15 years old.
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Challenge
A patient’s treatment can last up to 20 years as it involves psychological, emotional, and physical scars. Our challenges and goals involved re-imagining and brainstorming ways to include narratives that can empower patients from ages one to 20 years old. The design should also bring out specific spatial features and materials of the building.
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Photo by Juan Roman
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Impact, scalability, and the viability of the design heavily influenced our decisions during the brainstorm stage.
Solution
By understanding the emotional journey, we designed the spatial interaction to be a live storybook, inviting the patients on a curiosity-evoking and fantastical journey. The Healing Tree story and animation are inspired by COANIQUEM’s love and devotion to their patients and serve as a narrative to reduce the patients’ fear of the treatment. The design for Camila and Lucas, the protagonists of the story, are inspired by the patients we interacted with.
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Our vision is for the campus to become an oasis in the heart of the barren landscape in the Atacama Desert.
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Connecting Impact with Design
Immersive storytelling connects users and stakeholders through digital, physical, and emotional interactions that heighten the value of the community. This design not only highlights a magical and adventurous experience, but also alludes to Antofagasta’s unique cultural, geographical, and social context.
Animation made in collaboration with David Herrera
A documentary by David Herrera
The project seeks to provide confidence for the patients to take charge of their own healing journey, and find joy after a traumatic experience through a sense of control and self-sufficiency.