The Globe and Mail

How can a hospital be a home? If home means a place of refuge, relaxation and happiness where you control your environment and are free to venture into the outside world, hospital is pretty much the opposite. This was the conundrum that faced a team of architects and interior designers who worked six years on a new leading-edge facility for children required to live in hospital for weeks, months or even years as they recover from accidents and serious illnesses or cope with severe, life-long disabilities. The newly opened Bloorview Kids Rehab, which will be ready to receive long-term patients on its 75-bed residential floor this June, is a triumph of sensitive design.