Happy chappy healing house : how can the spaces and environments within a children’s hospital be designed to create hope?

Abstract

My father had two long years in hospital care before he passed away. passed away. He did not enjoy the environment of the hospital ward, or any part of his stay there. The poor design of the hospital itself had a negative impact, both physically and psychologically, on him and the rest of my family. The memories of that hospital are all negative; memories of death, cold rooms, uncomfortable furniture and sadness; memories of sterile white walls, corridors filled with fearful and hopeless families with nowhere else to wait, the same families, day after day, for weeks, or months; memories of the physical discomfort of the patients as they were moved from room to room and building to building to get the treatment they needed in the disjointed and cumbersome layout of the hospital. The experience has often provoked the questions “How could the hospital spaces be designed differently? How could they be places that inspire hope?”

This research project will propose and design a new children’s hospital environment which inspires hope, through creating spaces that feel safe, happy, warm, and even bring joy. The project aims to reduce the fear; fear that manifests in both the patient themselves and the loved ones who visit/ stay with them. The architectural psychology of spaces will be combined with design principles of patient-centred architecture, to create environments for physical and psychological healing for younger patients and their loved ones.