Good design provides a platform to transcend aesthetics to deliver benefits well beyond the built form.
These benefits include improved models of care and safety, enhanced treatment outcomes and more dignified experiences for patients, aged care residents, staff and families.
For decades architects, designers, clinicians and academics working in the health sector have been asking important questions about the impact of infrastructure, and the built environment.
Questions like, can a health facility be both functional and aesthetically pleasing?
Should we focus solely on the efficient treatment of illness, or should we also consider what factors can promote health and wellbeing?
And ultimately, can the way we design our healthcare environments encourage a greater sense of wellbeing?
We may intuitively know that aspects like natural light, green spaces and fresh air can make us feel better and more relaxed. And while global research broadly supports this, the conversation is now turning to how we can effectively measure the impacts of ‘good design’, in the same way we measure a building’s carbon footprint.
Stefano Scalzo, Executive General Manager of Infrastructure Planning at the Victorian Department of Health, sat down with Professor Julie Bernhardt, Co-head of Stroke at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, as they talk about good design in health infrastructure - and why it matters.