Last week, I had my very first overnight stay in a hospital for my husband. Although it was an anxious and restless experience by nature, it was fascinating to observe the interior design and also compare it with my childhood memories as I used to visit my grandmother during her hospital stay. I must say it was surprisingly a pleasant experience.
The room appeared almost homey to my eyes unlike my expectation of “hospital/sterile” with colors in yellowish ivory and durable artificial materials. The room was designed with wooden flooring, cabinetry works and doors. One wall was painted in a warm blue-green decorated with a few art pieces. The window was taking in plentiful natural light into the room and facing greenery with a relatively quiet residential area and mountains in the distance. Free-standing furniture pieces were simply amazing. I remember it was challenging for a nurse to move my grandmother’s bed. Every piece – including the bed, was movable with one hand and one foot to adjust its positioning. It was also impressive to see frame-less doors, which make the room look clean and modern.
There have been a great number of studies completed to make such improvements in the healthcare space. I would like to share a few which may be even beneficial and applicable to your residential living space since they were based on scientific rational. Traditionally, patients were suggested to move away from urban environments with negative distractions to rural environments filled with more nature. Recently, in phenomenology, it is understood that these natural elements can be brought into urban environments to achieve the equivalent effects. What I witnessed last week was truly a reflection of that research.
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Employment of natural wood materials – as it was already discussed in the previous article (“Visit to Portland”), it has positive psychological and physiological effects
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Less man-made noise – Alvarsson et al. conducted a study to suggest that sound is effective for physiological stress recovery. After a stressful mental arithmetic task, subjects were exposed to different sounds and checked for their sympathetic and parasympathetic recovery. The results showed those exposed to sounds of nature had a quicker physiological recovery of sympathetic activation than ones with road traffic noise or ambient noise which was mainly from ventilation systems (“Stress Recovery during Exposure to Nature Sound and Environmental Noise” by Jesper J. Alvarsson: 1037-44)
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Nature through window – positive impacts including lowering blood pressure and heart rate, and increasing mental engagement and attentiveness (see the article “Well-being supported by Science”)
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Free-standing furniture pieces – less stress for patients who are healing and their close ones
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Green hue – people adjust well to new surrounding when interiors are colored in green (“Contemporary Color – theory & use” by Steven Bleicher: Ch. 3)
Having seen him recovering from the surgery at home, it reminded me which parts of the home need to be modified for easier traffic flow and utility. Unfortunately, you don’t ponder over such needs until you happen to adjust to a disability. However, it is beneficial to plan in advance. Inspired by this stay, I would also like to design some furniture pieces with great mobility and flexibility. Custom-design furniture designed to suit your physical features and your life style (current or future) is something you can hold on to for many years.