Alex Solk, Partner and Healthcare lead at Sheppard Robson, argues that the next generation of hospital design should ‘learn from the office’s drive for wellness’. He believes that ‘wellness in the workplace is as vital to hospital design as it is to re-thinking our offices’.
There has rightly been a huge focus on the importance of NHS staff during COVID-19 – from rainbows in windows to clapping on doorsteps, we have seen a public outpouring of appreciation. This must also be met with better working conditions to make NHS staff feel rightly appreciated and valued, and what better way than a radical re-think of the quality of spaces that such personnel have to work and rest in? By utilising ideas from office design, we can create uplifting facilities that are flexible, efficient, and cost-effective, with the skills of the architect at the heart of the conversation.
While clinical advances and technology in healthcare have progressed rapidly, hospital design – and the quality of spaces the sector provides – are often overlooked. However, the pandemic has created impetus for the sector to embrace new design thinking, leading designers to ask: ‘What can healthcare learn from the developments of other sectors?’ I am particularly interested in drawing a parallel with offices, and how that sector has put wellness at the heart of the design process.
Lacking ‘latitude’ for fresh thinking
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