Florence Project | Bezalel Academy's Emergency Studio at Soroka Hospital in the Negev

Florence, Bezalel Academy's Design and Innovation Studio that operates within Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva, the Negev's major city, is operating an emergency center for architects and designers who are responding to the real time needs of the hospital in war time.

 The emergency center started working during the second week of the war, its activity operating under the purview of "Florence Project", a unique cooperation/collaboration between Bezalel Academy and Soroka Medical Center that has been in ongoing since the COVID-19 crisis. This project aims to provide solutions to the challenges that have to do with the human experience of the hospital's stakeholders: patients, families, and the staff.

The studio is run by volunteers from the Bezalel community. Over the past few days the emergency studio has been having discussions with the hospital's administration and managers concerning the unique needs of the medical staff working on the front lines of the war. After an initial charting of the needs and by coordinating the different possibilities and limitations with the hospital's administration, the volunteers will present their plans and blueprints to hospital and interior design professionals.