Liminal Hospital Spaces : Corridors to Well-Being?

PIGOTT, Joanne, HARGREAVES, Janet, POWER, Jess and SWANN, David (2016). Liminal Hospital Spaces : Corridors to Well-Being? In: Well-Being 2016: Third International Conference Exploring the Multi-Dimensions of Well-Being, Birmingham City University, 5-6 September 2016. (Submitted)

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Abstract

Hospital design has progressed from the favoured pavilion ward layout of Florence Nightingale’s 1856 recommendations, to observation of the similarities between office buildings and single block hospitals and more recently the recognition of the transient corridor space. Yet still, people’s experiences and expectations highlight similar feelings of powerlessness and vulnerability when in positions of the patient, family, friend or caring bystander. This paper discusses the importance of liminality in hospital corridor/waiting areas, and how through design intervention(s), such as temporality of shadows, voice and scent, could aid personalisation of such transient spaces to engage those that pass through, sit and wait, with interior elements that enhance feelings of well-being. The paper explores the semiotics of architects and designers within hospitals as a series of functioning units and blocks. It discusses the corridor and public spaces as contributors of communities that deliver care as opposed to cure. A combined methodology is used based on an abductive logic using an interpretivist approach to construct knowledge through mixed data collection. A series of observations, conversations and suggestions, galvanised through sketching, engage the curious, to explore potential of design triggers to humanise such spaces. Therefore design interventions become intrinsic interlocutors with its community of patients, family, friends, health professionals and staff. Hence design, creates opportunities of enhanced experiences, involved in continual narratives to well-being. The findings conclude the importance of corridor/waiting areas, or non-spaces, as vital areas, which underpin our experiences, where incidental social space becomes design drivers aiding feelings of well-being.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Additional Information: This year Well-Being 2016 explores the multi-dimensions of well-being focusing on the achievements of well-being through collaboration - to co-create experiences which are positive and meaningful to the individual. In Well-being 2016, we seek answers to a range of questions about negotiating and navigating the experiences that underpin the achievement of well-being – How positive encounters are or might be embedded in our contact with the environments where we live, learn, play or work; how individuals are supported in ways that enables them to take control of their personal well-being; what constitutes a pathway encounter; how are the impacts expressed or captured, the techniques involved, the use of electronic media, verbalisation and narratives or through artistic endeavour, design, making and the crafts, the unique role of the practitioner and the growing relevance of a medical humanities approach? We aim to provide a platform for dialogue between academics and practitioners, knowledge exchange and methodological exploration through a combination of keynote speakers, breakout sessions and workshops.
Research Institute, Centre or Group - Does NOT include content added after October 2018: Cultural Communication and Computing Research Institute > Art and Design Research Centre
Depositing User: David Swann
Date Deposited: 14 Jun 2016 08:23
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2021 18:15
URI: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/12379

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