Evaluation of hospital outdoor spaces through users’ participation analysis

Abstract

Hospital outdoor spaces (HOS) play an important part of the Healthcare facilities, with a particular impact on the healing process, which is possible to evaluate by their cultural, social, ecological and economic characteristics and values (Ulrich 1984, 2001, Burnett, 1997; Marcus and Barnes, 1999). However, this paper argues that research studies refer to HOS only as residual spaces to support medical activities. Urban theory, policy and scientific research is focusing on the issue of the hospital evaluation, but mainly on interior and spatial characteristics, rather than a hospital outdoor environment. No more than 1000 papers have been published on this topic. This paper discusses quality and significance of HOS in Belgrade, while identifying the problems and potentials of HOS, from the user perspective. The presented paper is established as the part of the larger research done in collaboration of the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade and Sapienza University of Rome, Faculty of Architecture, which will be presented in a series of four books. The first book (Health Spaces: Hospital outdoor environment) is already published and it offers a general “top-down” interdisciplinary overview of the topic of HOS, given by experts - architects, urban planners and designers. Particularly, this paper is prepared as a foundation for the second book, with the aim to offer a “bottom-up” overview on the topic of HOS given by hospital “community” (doctors, patients, staff, visitors, etc.). Furthermore, this research was also conducted as a part of an academic course: “Participative Urban Design”, with the students at the master level of studies. The methodological framework used in this paper consists of extensive and fundamental literature review. In the frame of participative and collaborative approach, all analyses were conducted in the form of quality assessment, from the perspective of stakeholders, aforementioned as a hospital community. The survey was conducted using specific two-part questionnaire, carefully established within the academic course, as a main tool for reaching the database. Focusing on the case of Belgrade, four major hospitals were chosen as case studies: Clinical center of Serbia, Military Medical Academy, and both Clinical Hospital Centers: “Bežanijska kosa” and “Zvezdara”. The group of 12 students conducted the survey over a period of four weeks, with more than 120 participants from each hospital, gathering both specific and general results. Overall, this paper presents the first assessment of HOS of this kind ever done in Serbia. The results of the research will contribute to improving hospital environment and could present the first step on the path to integrate outdoor spaces into hospital life.