In March 2020 the new hospital in Kommunarka became famous in the entire country: it was the first facility to start accepting patients with the coronavirus. The hospital that was built as a multi-purpose health center was completely repurposed. This required urgently creating new maps and signs to help staff and volunteers find their way around without losing valuable time as well as designing important instructions for those at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic on how they can protect themselves.
Task 1. To help navigate the hospital on the first day.
Every day new specialists from various medical institutions of Moscow and volunteers start their shifts at the hospital. To avoid explaining to every one of them how to get to the main building, where the HR department, accounting or locker rooms are, visual maps were created.
Task 2. To explain the structure of the ward wing during quarantine.
The ward wing operates in a non-standard mode: all wards have been repurposed for COVID-19 patients and staff offices redistributed according to the current needs. Every day the situation changes and new employees arrive at the wing.
Navigating this storm of changes is easier with floor map templates that mark key places: wards, stations, elevators and stairs.
All maps are printed on plain paper so that the staff can fill in the purpose of each room by hand. Templates are prepared for printing in both large size for spacious halls and small size to be placed at each station.
Task 3. To create a system of temporary signs and announcements.
Universal sign templates were created to ensure the wayfinding system can be updated in place.
The signs are printed on colored paper so that they differ from other information posted in the hospital.
Thanks to a separate template with arrows, any sign can easily have a direction indicator.
Task 4. To explain how the medical professionals can protect themselves.
Special attention was paid to step-by-step instructions for putting on and removing personal protection equipment. Instructions are used by everyone entering the quarantine zone.
Posters and illustrations are large so they can be clearly seen from a distance and even when wearing protective goggles.
Task 5. To be closer to each hospital employee.
During such demanding times it is especially important to promptly update maps and templates with the most up to date information. To that end, each sheet has a link to the latest versions of the maps and the form where employees can submit their requests for updates.
art director
- Art. Lebedev Studio wishes to thank the City Clinical Hospital No. 40 team, especially Denis Protsenko and Roman Gostishchev for the help and assistance with the project
