Environment actively affects people’s wellbeing and health. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the relationship between architectural design and public health back to the centre of attention, especially with regard to hospitals and urban environments.
Building or rebuilding a hospital or a healthcare establishment requires meeting restrictive regulatory, technical and economic requirements. To meet the needs of patients and caregivers, the hospital must be designed as a cohesive, flexible and evolving space.
In general, in the design of healthcare environments, the greatest attention is paid by the hospital planners in India to the optimal solution of the areas considered most important, such as the operating and intervention theatres (clinics, diagnostics), the technical areas and the hospitalization areas; the other spaces such as reception areas, waiting areas and corridors have always been considered as more or less residual spaces, almost residual.
In reality these areas should not be underestimated as welcoming places and first environments encountered by users, and therefore part of that conscious and unconscious process which is the creation of judgment. And the judgment given to the structure then becomes judgment on the whole organization.
From common experience it emerges that the environments intended for care and health in general often correspond to impersonal places, marked by an indefinite time, devoid of any possibility of action. This can induce different sensations: anxiety, impatience, but also simple boredom. Some considerations to take as a basis of the design criteria of these areas:
- Occupied time is perceived as shorter than unoccupied time
- People perceive the first wait as the longest
- Anxiety makes the wait seem longer
- Undefined expectations are perceived as longer than the defined expectations
- Unjustified expectations are perceived as longer than justified expectations
- Expectations perceived as unfair are experienced as longer than the right ones
- The higher the expectation of service, the more customers are willing to wait
- Waiting alone is perceived as longer than waiting in company.
In health facilities, the reception and waiting areas, in particular the atrium, the connecting spaces, and the rest and waiting areas in general, perform specific functions.
Best hospital consultants in India agree that the modern design of hospitals should move away from established concepts and more closely match the external appearance of living quarters. Thus, there are several key requirements:
- Severity and restraint;
- Comfort;
- Functionality.
In the first case, it is supposed to create such an external appearance that would combine relative severity and restraint. Many people are accustomed to perceive medical institutions in this way, so you should not deviate from this.
At the same time, visitors should not feel like patients within the walls of the hospital. And therefore it is important to create a favourable atmosphere and a comfortable environment. It contributes to the recovery of people much better, which, of course, must be taken into account in your work.
At the time of designing hospitals and other medical institutions, specialists always pay special attention to functionality. Any hospital design must be able to meet specific objectives. Nevertheless, modern designers and architects have proven more than once that thoughtful design can combine different nuances.
The hospital consulting companies in India will help to design a design that will help to solve many problems.