The Light Therapeutic – article on current research into the effects of light on health, with far-reaching implications for the design of buildings and cities, especially healing environments. What is most startling is the way our bodies respond to light. Gloomy winter days are known to trigger …
The Colours at Martini Hospital in Groningen – architect Arnold Burger of SEED architects and interior designer Bart Vos worked with color artist Peter Struycken to develop a palette of 47 colors for this new hospital in the Netherlands. The organization of the hospital was deliberately …
Sculptural pipes play secret lullabies to entertain hospital patients – the kids at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital are in for a treat, an “audio-playground for the young patients.” The Lullaby Project (check out the drawings and the backstory) was developed by architects at Studio Weave and sound artist Jessica Curry. Sculpture? Sound …
How Healthcare Uses Water – page on the website of Practice Greenhealth with statistics on water use in health care facilities and links at the bottom to further information on how to reduce water use in hospital and other medical environments. Healthcare facilities consistently fall within the top ten consumers …
Blue light has a dark side, an article from Harvard Medical School, and a 12-min video clip of Russel J. Reiter, M.D. PhD of University of Texas talking about Melatonin’s role in Cancer are both worth your time, especially if you’re involved in the design of healthcare facilities. The …
Remedies for Healthcare Design: Major industry directions you need to address – interview with Chris Seper, founder of MedCity, on trends in the business of healthcare and in hospital design. Here’s the part I found especially interesting: Hospitals are the least inviting of any buildings, but now they are the …
Accountable Design for Accountable Care – from McGraw-Hill Research Foundation and HOK, a 20-p PDF that looks at healthcare design and the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act (PPACA). Image here is from p. 3 and illustrates typical acute care unit configurations. … illustrates how healthcare design impacts accountable …
The Color Red for a good Night’s Sleep? – the design team for a nursing home in New York used a recent corridor lighting upgrade as an opportunity to test current research into the effects of light and color on health. The results were published in the Oct 2012 …
Why architects should use their ears more – June 2012 TED talk by sound expert Julian Treasure on the physiological, social, psychological, and behavioral effects of sound. In this short talk, Treasure demonstrates how statistics reflect the sound qualities of space. The louder the spaces, such as hospitals, …
Check out the series of articles in Healthcare Design – “Research in Practice” – written by healthcare design researchers at HOK, Nick Watkins and Erin Peavey. It offers practical advice for anyone in a position to make decisions regarding the design of a hospital or healthcare facility. Research in Practice: …
Henry Ford Hospital West Bloomfield greenhouse producing food – and wellness – about hospital’s new $1 million hydroponic greenhouse. Dozens of kinds of vegetables and herbs — five types of kale, 23 kinds of tomatoes, five varieties of basil, eggplants, squash, hot and sweet peppers, fresh herbs, microgreens and …
The Application of Color in Healthcare Settings – 78-p PDF from The Center for Health Design. Authors are Sheila J. Bosch, Eve Edelstein, Rosalyn Cama, and Jain Malkin. Saw it on the HERD LinkedIn discussion group. From the Executive Summary (p. 9): This paper’s value is as a reference …
Timothy Prestero: Design for people, not awards | Video on TED.com – There are so many good quotes in this 15-min TED talk that you might as well check it out for yourself. The speaker takes us through his journey of designing a device to keep newborns in developing countries warm …
Texas Tech’s College of Human Sciences is partnering with Sky Factory Australia to study the “effects of virtual skylights on hospital patients.” The initial study will generate brain maps of the neural pathways and regions associated with patient’s perception of the SkyCeilings™ unique imagery. Read about it in …
Bridging the Empathy Gap – Metropolis POV post by HOK’s Henry Chao on the trend towards the “globalization of Western medicine” and its effect on the design of healthcare facilities around the world. This trend is forcing the convergence of scientific treatment with culturally responsive delivery. I call this “bridging …
Healthy Hospital Study Finds Savings in Plain Sight – a nine-hospital study from the Health Care Research Collaborative finds plenty of savings in waste management, energy use, and operating room supply procurement. “This study turns on its head the belief that introducing environmental sustainability measures increases operating costs,” said …
Sound Design: Can a Hospital Design Decrease Noise in an ICU Environment? – it’s great to see someone in a position to effect the design of healthcare environments paying attention to this issue. The Cannon Design post links to a poster (the visual kind) with more information.
Fascinating article from The New York Times, True Blue Stands Out in an Earthy Crowd, with observations of interest to designers: In healthcare: Sick children like their caretakers in blue: A recent study at the Cleveland Clinic found that young patients preferred nurses wearing blue uniforms to those …