CABE Healthy Hospitals
There is a growing body of evidence that shows that good design has a significant positive effect on patients and staff. A number of key organizations have been raising the stakes for healthcare design and architecture, lifting the standard of debate about the impact that design quality can have on the healthcare environment.
The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has added to this body of knowledge by commissioning new research looking at nurses' opinions of their working environment. This illustrates vividly how the quality of hospital environments impacts on hospital staff, patients and visitors.
CABE has asked four teams of architects and designers to challenge conventional thinking and generate ideas for how a hospital could be designed. The designs are provocative and do not necessarily reflect the detailed design requirements of acute care environments. Instead they help us consider how we want hospitals to feel as spaces where we are treated, recover, work or visit.
The four teams of architects and designers are:-
- muf architecture / art with Rosetta Life
- McDowell + Benedetti
- Fat Ltd with Demos
- Jane Darbyshire and David Kendall Ltd
Proposal by Fat Ltd with DEMOS for CABE Healthy Hospitals project
CABE wants the general public to vote and give their views on what kind of design could help patients to get better more quickly. Your choice and your thoughts will be collated, analysed and presented to key decision makers, alongside CABE's recommendations on how healthcare facilities can be improved.
CABE is working with the Royal College of Nursing, The King's Fund, The Nuffield Trust, The Design Council, NHS Estates Centre for Healthcare Architecture and Design and Future Healthcare Network to help raise awareness of the importance of good design and show that it has a direct impact on the lives of patients, nurses and doctors.
The full report can be downloaded from http://www.cabe.org.uk/publications/radical-improvements-in-hospital-design
CABE's website is at www.cabe.org.uk
