Psycho-physiological health benefits of exposure to natural blue elements in healthcare facilities
This ongoing Ph.D. project explores ways to implement blue elements (water and sky) in windowless areas of healthcare facilities. The goal is to determine which design strategies and built environment interventions can increase positive influences of natural blue elements on patients’ psycho-physiological health.
It has been reported repeatedly that nature exposure is capable to bring about positive influences on the health situations of patients. But interestingly, the main focus of researchers has been on green elements. Consequently, in debates related to the built environment, nature is considered mostly green. Although sky and water are known as important natural blue elements, they have been rarely explored in research.
Radiology departments containing delicate instruments such as PET and CT devices seem to give much attention to the care of instruments rather than the psychological needs of patients. Indeed, even though recently more attention is paid to making a strong connection between healthcare settings and green elements, due to technical reasons, some departments such as radiology departments have remained windowless or minimally windowed areas that lack the nature exposure. This makes the necessity of considering radiology departments as the case study more evident.
By literature review and architectural analysis, this study aims to first identify the effective design strategies and interventions based on natural blue elements exposure. Then, a set of visual assessments using an online photo questionnaire and semi-structured interviews seek the opinion of experts in the field. In the final phase, based on the outcomes of the photo questionnaire, interviews, and architectural analysis, virtual environments are designed in order to measure the influence of design strategies on the psycho-physiological states of patients who undergo the CT-Scan procedure.
This Ph.D. project intends to inform architects about the significant role of blue elements in healthcare settings and how to transfer the design strategies and built environment interventions based on blue elements into healthcare settings, in terms of creating more restorative environments.
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PhD Student
NameFatemeh Amirbeiki Tafti M.Sc.
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