Buildings change through time. Not only do their materials weather, but their intended purpose can become altered by a changing society’s or culture’s needs. So, how do you design a building that is both timely and timeless? This is an age-old question.

It is important to stay on top of the latest trends that affect building design and construction processes, but that is not all that is important.

New advances are taking place in other fields. In the sciences, for example, researchers are unraveling great findings that both directly and indirectly will affect the way you design and how your occupants perceive your spaces. Such advances prove to be important because they impact how people live — this influences how they think, the choices they make and what they like to do.

IT’S BOTH COMPLEX AND SIMPLE

A timely design can reach timelessness by really Read more

The big challenge for architects designing concert halls is to design the architectural acoustics to meet the needs of varying musical styles. (1)

WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM CONCERT HALL DESIGN

The design challenge of a concert hall is at first glance contradictory — to foster closeness and, yet, to surround listeners with the life and essence of a music’s sound.

Different levels of intimacy and aliveness vary depending on music style. What makes this even more difficult is that, intimacy and aliveness are very difficult to quantify — thus, design for. (1)

Such contradictions exist in other architecture types. For instance, hospitals must design to cater to as many patient needs as possible while striving to keep hospital costs low. In office buildings, the need for both individual work and team work is vital – the contradiction surfaces when considering how interconnected the two should be.

SOLVING FOR CONTRADICTIONS

Timing is everything (well, almost.)

A great hospital design could, in fact, help to meet just the right patient needs at just the right time in their healing process. This yields faster recovery and; thus, less hospital cost since patients stay for less time.

The secret is Read more

INFORMATION EVERYWHERE

The hospital of the “future” is just around the corner. Already, research is being done to create an “interactive hospital” (1) — also known as a ubiquitous smart space.

The first step for better hospital design is a shift in mind-set where computers need to be thought of differently — departing from the traditional “office-type” mentality.

You see, hospitals deal with all formats of information that need to be accessible anytime and anywhere within the hospital. (1) Instead of providing one computer per person, an interactive hospital would provide an array of computer embedded just about everywhere so information can travel seamlessly, wherever and whenever it is needed.

A PRO-HEALING ENVIRONMENT

As ubiquitous computing technologies come together to make medical smart spaces, it becomes possible for all kinds of medical devices to help with data and collaboration management. The first step is for hospital technologies and environments to become interactive — helping the medical team to do a better job, more quickly.

Here is a glimpse of how an interactive hospital might work: Read more

It is no secret that hospital patients are influenced by their surroundings. Hospital design directly impacts patient health – in more ways than one might think. Today hospital designers are trying to evolve hospitals beyond their infamously sterile décor. Care is being taken to use color, nature and wayfinding to ease a patient’s hospital stay. The following are five ways hospital design influences patient health – where care should be taken to improve patient recovery.

1) SENSE OF PLACE:
In the paper, Is there a Psychologist in the Building by Christian Jarrett, hospital layout is listed as quite an important factor for patients. Going beyond simple signage, hospital patients should be able to have a sense of their location without ever feeling lost. It has been found that having a sense of place helps keep patient stress levels down.(1)

2) PRIVATE ROOMS:
Also important to hospital design is the frequency of private rooms in a hospital. Providing private rooms reduces medication error and falling instances.(1) I’m sure you can imagine that private rooms also make for better visiting with patients and their loved ones.

3) NATURE + ARTWORK:
Hospitals that include nature and artwork are providing for more positive patient experiences. Both nature and artwork contribute to patients having a greater “sense of well-being” where spaces lend themselves toward contemplation and feeding the senses.(1)

4) NOISE:
A major problem within hospitals today is noise. Often patients cannot sleep through the night as medical carts screech through the halls and doors open and close. Hospital designers should pay greater attention to acoustics within hospitals as noisy environments generate more stress for patients. Also, sleep is critical for patient recovery.

5) COLOR:
Use of color in hospital design has a multitude of uses. Color can help patients have a sense of orientation – where color is used to give different hospital areas a sense of place. Also, color has been known to be associated with mood. Using the right colors in waiting areas, examination rooms, hallways or patient private rooms can have a definite affect on patient motivation and stress levels.

All in all, progress is being made to design better hospitals. Much study and research is now underway to more completely understand what patients truly need. So often, it is the patient that never gets their needs heard during the design process. For this reason it is nice to know that healthcare design is now getting more attention and making improved headway.

(1) Jarrett, Christian. Is there a psychologist in the building?. The Phychologist. Vol 19 No 10. October 2006.