Hospital Ward Architecture: A Mixed Methods Approach for Spatial Design and Privacy

The role of the architectural design of wards which is responsive to patients’ preferences and expectations is an important contribution to the design of a modern hospital. In particular, patient's privacy is known to be important for patient's physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. However, little is known about the relationship between the spatial structure of hospital wards and patient preferences for privacy. This book presents a multi-angle insight into the relationship between hospital ward design and aspects of visual privacy as a design criterion within the context of guidelines on ward design, and architects’ priorities. It involves three stakeholders: patients, experts and architects. In addition to the empirical work presented, the book provides a review of hospital design with a focus on ward architecture, documents hospital design development in the UK, analysises privacy theories, and critically discusses Space Syntax theory. The book uses a rigorous combination of methods making it of interest to architects, environmental psychologists, facility managers, healthcare estates regulators and researchers concerned with healthcare buildings.