The time has come: The “Tunnelflieger” installation, created in collaboration with Mainz University of Applied Sciences, Mainz University Medical Center, and the nonprofit organization “Sterntaler e.V.,” was launched a few days ago. The virtual paper airplane is designed to literally make the stressful journey from the hospital room to the operating room easier for children and turn it into a reassuring experience.
The pediatric surgery ward and operating rooms at Mainz University Medical Center are located in two different buildings. These are connected by a 200-meter-long, functional, and rather austere-looking underground corridor—not an ideal physical environment for transporting young patients on their way to surgery.
The nonprofit association “Sterntaler e.V.” and the Department of Pediatric Surgery, represented by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Oliver Muensterer, set out to improve this situation through targeted spatial design measures. Together with students and professors from the “Communication in Space” master’s program at Mainz University of Applied Sciences, they therefore developed the idea of the “Tunnel Flyer.” In the future, a virtual paper airplane will accompany patients on their journey, tracing its path above the children on a cloud-patterned blanket developed specifically for this purpose—a playful presentation designed to distract them from the transport to the operating room.
“We began in the 2015–16 winter semester with the firm intention of improving the situation for patients in the University Medical Center’s underground service corridor. At that time, it was still unclear whether we would actually succeed in implementing the ‘Tunnel Flyer’ concept. Thanks to the perseverance and active support of everyone involved, what began as a student project has now become a realized spatial installation. About three years after our first test setup at the Rhineland-Palatinate Exhibition, it’s gratifying to see that the idea of the ‘Tunnelflieger’ has now become a reality,” explains Prof. Bernd Benninghoff of Mainz University of Applied Sciences, Design.
And his colleague Prof. Markus Pretnar adds: “Even while we were working in the tunnel, it was clear that patients and their companions were engaging deeply with the new installation and that the underground ride—together with the Tunnelflieger—was becoming a positive experience for them. The ‘Tunnelflieger’ is not only proof of the social value of design. It also makes us, as designers, happier to have set something truly good in motion through our work.”
“We have significantly improved a situation that had been very unsatisfactory for many years thanks to the ‘Tunnelflieger,’” said Dr. Wolfgang Puth, chairman of the Sterntaler Association for Pediatric Surgery, and thanked all supporters and donors, without whom the implementation of the project—which cost a total of approximately 140,000 euros—would not have been possible. The director of the Clinic and Polyclinic for Pediatric Surgery at Mainz University Medical Center, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Oliver Muensterer, is also pleased with the project’s completion: “The ‘Tunnelflieger’ is a long-awaited milestone toward creating a truly child-friendly atmosphere at the University Medical Center.”
