The innovative project considered that the Pharmacy experiential message had to be articulated throughout a two-pronged strategy:

1. Cure (sticking with therapies, being proactive to questions, problem solving, information)
2. No stress (relax, soft music release, naturalness of premises with a cold-color layout)

The purchase experience which is usually paramount throughout Sartoretto Verna Design-Phase was left in this case behind, especially in relation to any commercial strategy. The clients needed to be re-considered not only as a patient, but also with his range of feelings connected to his relatives’ ones.

We started right from this point: the chronic patient. This figure was placed at the very core of the project  up to the point of imagining with him to access the Pharmacy like an imaginary trip throughout the 380 sqm beside the new specialized hospital’s reception / welcome entrance.

We designed the spaces and developed the ones as to be used to promote a health message, an educational and comforting one.

The new Pharmacy invites the patients only throughout the main hall. There is no chance to enter from the outdoor space. It was paramount to create a fresh and inviting first approach, with a clear and easy pathway to find immediately the services contained inside the Pharmacy.

The logo, placed beside the door, was in this respect a clear invite to enter. Pharmacy users will be people with physical or emotional disabilities. They can usually be the Hospital patients or their family and friends. We created for them an inviting place which can remove all negative feelings and provide the users with a natural environment with relaxing materials and colors.

Nuances of blue and green combined with a bit of yellow and vibrant orange together with natural materials such as wood, stone. Natural images, plants, moss and little trees can really make the environment free of stress, calm people’s mind and create a place where it is easy to pleasantly stay.

The aim was to create a comprehensive healthy experience together with the relaxing atmosphere (the contrary of traditional commercial pharmacies). The target was also to give proper information upon therapies and take care of the patients first and foremost.

We want them to feel home, welcome and facilitate the creation of privacy to be able to interact without constraints. It is important not to forget that the waiting time can be quite exhausting and even more when one is waiting to know upon his own health.

In that respect, we thought of islands, connected each other but still independent, to become the Pharmacy focal point. Each island was meant to represent a macro-category (i.e. diabetics) and must be attended by a specialized pharmacist.

It becomes a little consultancy point or, when possible, a room in which a specialist can be connected once a week. It will be like so also to make the hospital services marketable in case patients and families are not aware of them.

The Almoosa Pharmacy Waiting Area was designed to be sheltered with a wooden dome hosting many green sofas equipped with informational screens, as well as useful accessories such as battery charger for integrated mobile phones.

Screens release reassuring messages in conjunction with the order sequence to access the counter desks. Much attention has been placed to the shape and material of seats which were supposed to be very comfortable and made with durable materials.

Perhaps some heavy seats, hard to be moved, some of them even with armrests in order to make the elderly at ease with moving.

As far as the counter desk area we have considered two different desk categories:

• The first one for advised retail products: to be promoted always in conjunction with a specialist offering a consultancy for each category of product. The desk is smaller and easily recognizable because of its cladding equipped with a graphic image or the Pharmacy/Sector logo.
• Ethical Desks: we put the design and automation on the front with the idea of improving the privacy and professionalism of relationship between pharmacist and client. The panels have a plexiglass shield on the front shaped like a leaf protecting the client and making him feel safe. That is a toolkit to encourage a sort of reliability and dependability of relationship between pharmacist and client. It is possible to approach the pharmacy operator to ask for therapies with the idea that the best possible answers will be given with a The relationship is first of all a direct one, with two individuals one in front of the other. All the technological utilities will have their own spaces. Pharmacist’s job will be easy and fast without ever losing the visual contact.

The wall mounted showcases on curved lines get along with the patient form one side to the other of the Pharmacy.

They are gently alternated with other pastel color wooden furniture subdividing the areas in conjunction with the various specialization which the Pharmacy can offer and making them very visible with clear and precise messages.

What must be outstanding is not the amount of products and offers, but the selected and right items remaining on the shelves after having filtered all the unnecessary ones.

The facility to access products is always a prerequisite to commercially succeed. For this very reason also in this Pharmacy the circulation freedom has been guaranteed.

That being said, the help points spread out here and there (i.e. monobrand gondolas) were conceived with the idea of advise the clients and genuinely taking care of them.

Design was there to accomplish a promise of health, helping people to smile and making them feel better!