Healthcare Design - October 2015 - 36

In 1984, Roger S. Ulrich launched a thousand think pieces, papers, and
research projects with the publication of his seminal work on evidencebased design (EBD), "View Through a Window May Influence Recovery from
Surgery." Thirty years later, he's still the most widely cited researcher in the
field. Ulrich now lives in Sweden, where he continues his research endeavors
and serves as guest professor of architecture for the Centre for Healthcare
Architecture at Chalmers University of Technology. As The Center for Health
Design bestows its Changemaker Award upon Ulrich at this year's Healthcare
Design Expo & Conference, Healthcare Design spoke with him about the
evolution of EBD and what excites him about its future.
Healthcare Design: What's your take on the state of
the evidence-based design (EBD) movement today?
Roger Ulrich: Five years ago, in another interview for
Healthcare Design, I noted that the research in this area
had progressed a lot. And in the five years since then, the
progress has continued, no question. I'm encouraged
today by both the increase in quantity and especially the
quality of EBD studies.
Going back to 2008, when I last led a literature survey,
more than 90 percent of the good research was in medical journals. One had to look widely to find it in different
branches of medicine. Now there's HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, which I think has helped
stimulate research and give more focus to the field. And
university design programs today are hiring EBD researchers
and designers at the graduate level to supervise students.
This is an energetic, growing, alive field.
Has it gone far enough? Of course not. I certainly hope
not. As EBD grows as a field, its boundaries-like those of
medicine-are expanding. And so there continue to be new
issues emerging. As new research findings appear, inevitably
it's the nature of research to reveal new questions and directions for more research. Some findings will be supported or
confirmed by other researchers, while other findings will not
hold up and therefore be discarded. That's very healthy; it's
how research in any field evolves and grows and improves.
There are certainly issues relating to healthcare design that
still lack quality research. But on some issues, considerable
knowledge has become available. And we're also seeing better theory coming forward, which is important because good
theory raises new questions and can point to new design
solutions. But if this is to be useful to designers, they need to
take the time to understand the findings and think critically
and creatively about the implications for design.
Can you give an example of some of the new issues
being investigated?
There are several. One good example, and this has been
a game-changer internationally, is highlighted by a study
done here in Sweden where Karolinska University Hospital
renovated a wing in a 1970s building that houses high-acuity
NICU babies. The clinicians in the department had for years
tried to implement a family-centered care model but were
prevented by the fact that the old NICU had open bays with

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Healthcare Design - October 2015

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