This paper positions the specific case study of a critical-care ward room for a recovering stroke patient as demonstrating sensibilities concerned with the prosthetic expansion of the users’ operational capacity. To what extent is the space a corporeal extension, and to whose deficits does it serve? The definition of the medical prosthetic is intersected with the prevalent guidelines and provisions that shape recovery rooms; where user and room are hybridised for different operational purposes. How can the concept of the medical instrument inform a design proposal for a recovery room as both a multiple-user prosthetic and a healing tool?

The hospital room displays multiple types of body/object hybrids, which contradict, offset, or overlap with one another, which can inform a new room typology; consolidating the various intricacies of the recovery process. Rather than the recovery space being a room filled with standalone tools, this research develops a synergic form of the machine/room/body mutant.