Healthy collab
Description
The quality of human life is eternally dependent on the harmony of man and his environment. Man’s basic needs are food, clothing and shelter. As society has advanced his expectations of life has grown to enhancement and fulfillment. This is only possible through what is “justly referred to as the most complex of contemporary social institutions.” 1 The hospital. Conversely where man finds life he also finds one of the leading causes of death. One in every twenty five hospital patients are affected by a hospital-acquired infection (HAI).2 The architects behind hospitals are not only responsible for impacting the emotional experience of the space but the health of the patients being cared for and the staff who is tending to them. The design is thereby crucial to the hospital’s success at treating patients and keeping them healthy. The current design process begins with new relationships between each of the essential entities. The design suffers from these “tabula rasa” connections when they could be improving exponentially with each project through a continuously transformative process. The static logic of space is used in an effort to overcome the inherent complexities of each project. Hospital-acquired infections can be prevented through a new paradigm of collaborative hospital construction. Can changing the approach to hospital design be a catalyst to preventing HAIs? Incorporating LEAN principles from both healthcare and construction will evolve the current framework in which hospitals are constructed. This will break many of the current boundaries and setup a new platform for future hospital developments.