Abstract

Playful and soothing – a pattern of paediatric facility
Embarking on a paediatric facility project, the aspiration for all involved is that the safest, most comfortable setting will be created, in which patients would receive the best care.

If we consider hospitals to be daunting places for most adults, then for children it can be much worse. Designers of different specialties collaborate to make the most of any opportunity to de-medicalise the premises and provide a less institutional feel. We present a selection of recent projects – varying from a paediatric outpatients clinic with a focus on multisensory environment to a children’s multifunction space in a hospice – to illustrate our approach to addressing the particular considerations integral to designing healthcare environments for children.

In the case of the Great Ormond Street Hospital’s Italian Building, we employed a thread of familial domesticity as an inspiration to the scheme, as the outpatient facility is not technically focused. The original hospital was first opened in the funder’s home, and the proposals aim to replicate the warm, homely feel of a big house with an inviting garden. The main waiting area will have the unpretentious character of an oversized sitting room. Each sub-wait area will include a sensory wall and an interactive floor. It’s also proposed to conceal a scent diffusing system, with a different scent for each floor for comfort and wayfinding. The scheme will include an outdoor wait space, with several cubby houses under the stairs for children to play and hide in, and tactile bench seating under a sculptural tree, as well as a rooftop garden offering sensory play for all abilities.

The children’s multifunctional room at the HJE’s St John’s Hospice will provide a sun-lit, welcoming space, seamlessly connecting to the outside, and offering the visiting, soon-to-be-bereaved children a balance between a soothing and stimulating experience. Seating niches, inflatable tactile pods and mobile screens will be employed for a flexible, accessible arrangement.

Child patients are growing in numbers, and their attitudes to health and healthcare, and their visual articulacy, are increasingly sophisticated. Still, along with the physical condition itself, unfamiliar faces, sounds and smells, uniformity, maze-like corridors, a lack of natural light, and the sterility of the environment often contribute to an unpleasant hospital experience. Physical design of an optimal healing space – a playful but not overly childish environment, catering for children of all ages and those who accompany them – is an opportunity to boost and elate.