A holistic view of healthcare buildings and its impact on occupant's wellbeing

There has been extensive research since the 1980s to understand the effects of the physical environmental
on the health and wellbeing of people in hospital settings. However, there is scarce investigations focusing
on the whole building perspective. The purpose of this study is to discuss the importance of evidence based
healthcare design from a holistic point of view, aiming to contribute to providing a positive impact on occupants.
The methods adopted include: (1) analysing the recent research that focus on the links between
the built environment and health outcomes on hospital settings; (2) from the literature review, identifying the
building characteristics that relate to people’s wellbeing; and (3) proposing a holistic framework to explore
future research. The framework developed will provide the means by which better understanding and actionable knowledge can be generated for future hospital design. The implication of this research is, from the
design point of view, the study takes an integrated approach of the built environment (hospital) within which
staff, patients, visitors live, seeking to explain the impacts of the environment on human well being and
performance; from the end- user point of view, the research looks at design strategies with an intention to
maximize the occupants’ beneits and minimize buildings’ maintenance and management. The identiication
of the impact of the built environment factors on staff and patient will be a new inding for healthcare buildings’
research, highlighting the importance of the design challenge for policy makers, designers and users.