For the first brick-and-mortar outpost of fertility startup Kindbody, located in Manhattan’s Flatiron district, the hospitality influence is apparent upon arrival. In fact, that was the brief owner Gina Bartasi gave to designer Ashley Wilkins, founder and creative director of Brooklyn, New York-based Islyn Studio. Wilkins wanted to create a home-away-from-home for patients pursuing IVF, egg freezing, or reproductive health-related programming. Wilkins credits Kindbody’s inviting design to a shift in healthcare design—where patient comfort comes first.
How did you rethink healthcare with Kindbody?
The owner said they wanted to create a space that didn’t feel like a typical doctor’s office. We wanted to create a story around [their ideal woman] who we felt could touch a lot of different people’s lives, and then create the space to almost feel like this extension of her home. The women who come into Kindbody are coming multiple times a week, and we wanted to make sure that the space was comfortable and could also appeal to an urban lifestyle.
The biggest thing Kindbody wanted to do was to make sure it wasn’t too spa-like or therapeutic. They wanted to speak to this sort of joyfulness, which is why we use a lot of color—like pink and yellow—to make sure it never felt too sedated.
What are other design highlights?
When we looked at designing the exam room, we started it from the point of view of the doctors, then the patient, and finally their partners and the nurses. Every detail was meant to be the most functional use you could get out of it. Often exam rooms don’t have closets to hang your things, so we created one. There are special linens for the beds and items as intimate as tissues. The design revealed itself based on the needs of each user.
Exam rooms channel cozy hotel rooms
Are more Kindbody spaces in the works?
We helped Kindbody develop a brand standards book for pop-up locations and smaller satellite locations. We designed a 600-square-foot pop-up that can rotate in different malls or larger public space settings. They’re trying to introduce themselves into different markets, and then find permanent locations that make the most sense for their user group.
How is healthcare changing?
I hadn’t been involved in healthcare before, but once we started working with Kindbody, we saw this incredible shift in the whole industry. People are looking to hospitality and seeing how to translate that into a healthcare environment. If you make a space friendlier and warmer, it impacts everyone’s day.
Organic cotton benches and curved lines in the lobby mirror the female form
This article originally appeared in HD’s March/April 2020 issue.
