In the past, hospitals were conceived of as isolators: they carved an island out of the spaces that surrounded them and dedicated it exclusively to medical professionals, their technicians and the nursing staff. They were the stout expression of clear dogma: health is a medical thing. This dogma has collapsed – but we still need hospitals. They need to accommodate medical procedures in the most effective way, but since the 1990s at the latest, they should also acknowledge the impact of patient’s experiences on their healing processes – the topic of Evidence Based Design.
Hospitals - A Design Manual
In the last decades, hospitals have changed dramatically. The need to make healthcare systems more cost effective, the consequences of aging, a shift toward patient centered care, the effects of digitization and the acceptance of Evidence Based Design, create a new hospital landscape and introduce new organizational concepts in hospitals, new distribution models and new typologies.
