Vital signs of comfort with a view to better health care
Architects seizing on a belief that good design can boost patient recovery are sweeping away institutional features in favour of a spa-like feel
Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always, wrote Hippocrates. In today's health care setting, architects are designing spaces that recognise one of the key tenets held thousands of years ago by the "father" of Western medicine - that of comfort's role in healing.
From hospitals to cancer centres to mental-health facilities globally, some of the leading lights in architecture are designing comfortable spaces inspired by nature, following the observations of Florence Nightingale who wrote, from her field hospital, that "being able to see out of a window, instead of looking at a dead wall", was "quite perceptible in promoting recovery".
For CircleBath in Bath, England - the first hospital project for Foster + Partners - the design team dug deep into hospital design, to understand its role in healing.
"The biggest thing we realised was if the patients were more relaxed, their healing time was quicker," said Darron Haylock, partner on the project. "That was at the heart of our design: to try to make an environment where the patients feel more relaxed, more comfortable, from the moment they walk in to when they leave."
The architects removed visual references that people associate with hospitals - such as corridors and excessive signage - and designed a space that feels more like a boutique-hotel spa. "As you move through the building, it's seamless," said Haylock.
Natural light filters in through a central atrium and, most unusually, the operating theatres have windows. All patient rooms have views to the outside landscape, window boxes planted with herbs and flowers, and even timber floors, which beats institutional vinyl in making people feel at home.