Before planning or renovating healthcare environments, it is necessary to understand the users' clinical, practical and emotional need and their abilities. From the 1980s until today, thousands of research studies were conducted examining whether certain design aspects of the built environment affect the healing, recovery, well-being, or satisfaction of various users in healthcare facilities. The results of these studies are targeted at architects, planners, and healthcare professionals involved in designing healthcare facilities to create environments for better well-being and psychological health, faster recovery, etc. Still, much knowledge about people's overall experiences with healthcare environments, systems, and processes is missing.
The current COVID-19 crisis places healthcare design at the forefront. Many existing buildings have proven unsuitable for diverse healthcare processes, highlighting the need to re-evaluate how various healthcare facilities, such as hospitals, rehabilitation clinics, dementia care centres, nursing homes, are designed. At the same time, the ageing population, new technologies, and the recent re-emergence of infectious diseases are changing the health care landscape. With this in mind, who will be the future users of healthcare facilities, and how may their experiences inform the design of these environments?
This course will adopt a research-based approach in investigating user needs in the built environment of healthcare facilities. We will explore the topic of person-centred Healthcare Architecture, which uses design principles that continuously consider the person's experience and satisfaction in the built environment. Students will be free to choose a healthcare facility type and the user group that will be the main focus of their investigation. They will take on the role of the researcher and conduct a mini-research study where different methods such as interviews, observations, surveys, in-depth literature analysis, case study or analysis of online material could be employed.
The focus of this semester's Wahlseminar is on stroke patients and the built environments for post-stroke rehabilitation. Students interested in this topic can use this Wahlseminar as preparation for the student competition "Next generation of stroke rehabilitation centres": https://www.uia-architectes.org/en/competition/next-generation-of-stroke-rehabilitation-centres/ (submission in April 2023). The research conducted in this seminar can provide a solid starting point for the development of new design concepts for rehabilitation.
Students who are not interested in the topic of stroke can also select other user groups for their research. Some possible user groups to investigate could be patients with dementia or cancer, as well as medical staff members such as nursing staff and physicians. The choice of a healthcare environment is not limited to the hospital; this could also be a rehabilitation clinic, a psychiatric clinic, a nursing home, even a home itself (for some types of care such as rehabilitation).
The main points of the investigation will be:
(1) What are the spatially-relevant symptoms that this user group commonly experiences?
(2) What are the barriers or facilitators they experience in the healthcare built environment?
(3) How could design be informed by the experiences of this user group?
The main goal is to acknowledge and understand the various needs of users in the built environment of healthcare facilities, to gain skills in assessing and analysing these needs, and to use the findings to inform the design of a built environment that contributes to the well-being of all users - patients, medical staff, and visitors - in the best way possible.
This seminar adopts an analytical and scientific approach to explore the various user needs in healthcare facilities by analysing literature and other supplementary materials, conducting own field research and discussing design concepts based on the research findings. Multiple methods, such as input presentations on scientific writing, group discussions, real-life scenarios, case study analysis and fieldwork, will be used. Throughout the course, students will also be introduced to the basics of scientific research in the field of healthcare design through presentations on the research process, literature search, research methods, data analysis and presentation, and the research publication process.
In the first steps of their research process, students will choose their investigated user group, conduct a literature analysis and write an expose with a defined research question. The next step will be to conduct a research study using the method of their choice, analyse the data and present the results. Based on these findings, students will develop personas and scenarios, evaluate existing healthcare projects, or develop new concepts for healthcare environments, depending on their interests. The research process will be guided in weekly meetings and presentations.
Good knowledge of English is required for reading scientific literature. The lectures are held in English, with slides in German if required.
Students have the choice of writing their Seminararbeit in German or English.
In the event of a changed Corona situation, there may be modifications to the format (e.g. change to solely distance learning).
Weekly meetings will take place on Monday's between 1 and 6 pm.
The introduction will be held on Monday, October 3rd, 2022, at 1 pm. The room will be announced later.
Please consider the plagiarism guidelines of TU Wien when writing your seminar paper:
Directive concerning the handling of plagiarism (PDF)
