2022

Out of the COVID-19 pandemic came the importance of being prepared to deal with natural or human-induced disasters, emergencies and other social crises, both foreseeable and unpredictable. Such situations also include the ageing of societies, demographic challenges, the various energy and environmental crises, which occur throughout the world, in conjunction with the advancement of technological innovations. The ability of critical infrastructure, such as health facilities, to deliver health services without disruption in these situations is a matter of priority. The hospital is the social architecture that best interprets the transformations taking place, as well as being a promoter of urban regeneration and the bearer of important positive impacts on a national scale.

Following the need to provide guidelines for the European region, the World Health Organization, together with the Design & Health Lab of the Polytechnic University of Milan, drew up a document in 2021 that includes some good practices and recommendations for the design of the Next Generation Hospital.
This technical paper is structured as a contribution to guide health infrastructure designers and planners on how to improve the safety, comfort and efficiency of hospital projects, both in case of renovation of existing buildings and for the design of new hospital facilities in the WHO European region. It is important to clarify that this report focuses on the architectural aspects of hospitals, without exploring service provision or the ideal combination of hospital services; the aim is to inspire a variety of forward-looking hospital projects that can be adapted to different contexts. The project is the result of a vision of the importance of collective learning following the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, it examines how to better integrate the hospital building itself within the community and its natural and social environment. This document is titled: “Hospitals of the future: A technical brief on re-thinking the architecture of hospitals”.

The brief is aimed at transnational health institutions; governing bodies of the care system, strategic leaders and managers; general managers, medical directors and strategic directors of health infrastructure; health infrastructure planners and designers; technical directors and facility managers of health infrastructure. The brief provides summary actions to support the process of rethinking architectures for health and is divided into two main sections, which detail the strategies to be addressed (a) outside and (b) inside the hospital. In the first section, “Out of the hospital”, which deals with the integration of the new hospital building with the community and natural and social environments, the topics covered include strategic location, synergies through the health network, landscapes and healing gardens, universal design and inclusion. The second section, “Inside the hospital”, discusses the interventions needed for hospitals in relation to structural and operational technical aspects. This section includes details on functional design, infrastructure sustainability, flexibility and resilience, the healthiness of the work environment, prevention and safety, infection and air quality control, and the digitalisation of healthcare. The manual is divided into 12 main categories for the best design practices of a healthcare facility, 4 external and 8 internal to the hospital building.