Healthcare Design - July 2014 - 11

STUDY

PATRICK MORGAN

The link between
architecture and patient
behavior

The issue inspired Building Trust
International to launch its Moved to Care
design challenge in December 2013, focusing on solving these challenges in Southeast
Asia. The project requirements included a
clean, sterile environment for small surgical
procedures; a temperature-controlled space
for storing medicinal drugs; and basic wash,
toilet, and kitchen facilities. Entries also
needed to be sensitive to the tropical surroundings and provide sustainable solutions
where possible.
A multidisciplinary team from the U.S.-
including Patrick Morgan, a designer at
Interface Studio Architects (Philadelphia);
his brother Simon Morgan, an associate at a
health policy research firm in New York City;
and Jhanéa Williams, a design architect
at Sasaki Associates Inc., (Watertown,
Mass.)-took home top honors in the
professional category with a prefabricated
mobile clinic design that's 538 square feet
and expands to 1,614 square feet when side
decks are deployed.
Circulation spaces on the exterior of the
unit can be used as waiting rooms on busy
days as well as places to host educational
seminars. "By pushing the circulation to the
exterior of the project, it makes the project
more open but it also reduces the transmission of disease," says Simon Morgan.
An enclosed exam room is equipped
to handle a range of medical needs, and
a sterile treatment room allows for minor
surgeries and injuries.
The proposed materials palette includes
recycled aluminum panels, which would
withstand the humid climate, and semitransparent polycarbonate panel walls that
both transmit and shade sunlight due to

their ribbed design. Using a trailer as the
building base keeps the clinic elevated
above potential rising waters, and a
rooftop solar array can be used to power
medical equipment and refrigeration for
medicines.
The project team says the biggest
design challenges were being mindful of
limited building resources and materials,
designing a low-tech facility that would
perform well in extreme climates and
weather conditions, and ensuring that
design aspects could be adapted to the
local vernacular.
While the project was designed with
Southeast Asia's environmental conditions and populations in mind, the team
says there's a universal lesson, as well.
"Don't shut the door to the community,"
Simon Morgan says. "By building a
facility that invites local participation and
encourages the community to utilize the
services and educational opportunities
provided, we're able to reach a much
broader audience."
Going forward, Building Trust
International says it has partners in Africa
and Southeast Asia that are interested
in developing the winning mobile clinic
design and it's working on establishing
relationships with manufacturers.
"As with all humanitarian aid projects, funding is an issue," Cole says.
"However, through showing that longlasting sustainable solutions can only
be achieved with the mobile healthcare
units, we hope the impact of the project
will be as far-reaching as it should be."
For more information, visit www.build
ingtrustinternational.org.-Anne DiNardo

Can something as simple as a curved doorway or undulating roof line on the exterior of
a healthcare facility trigger a fear response
in patients?
Debajyoti Pati, Rockwell Endowment
professor in the design department at Texas
Tech University (Lubbock, Texas), and
Upali Nanda, vice president and director
of research at HKS Inc. (Dallas), joined colleagues from Texas Tech and American Art
Resources (Houston) to explore the potential
influence of design aspects in the physical
environment-specifically, contours-on
activation of the amygdala, the brain region
associated with fear response.
Extending previous studies in neuropsychology, which found sharp objects were associated with significantly higher activation,
the Texas Tech study, which was funded by
American Art Resources and the Rockwell
Endowment, exposed 36 subjects to curved
and sharp lines typically found in healthcare
settings, such as in furniture and casework.
Similar to past tests, people associated
fear with sharp lines in landscapes (parks
and gardens) and objects. However, images
of curves in building exteriors and interiors
also made people more fearful.
"That's a finding of substantial importance
to healthcare design," Pati says. "Perhaps
amygdala response to contours will vary
depending on the context. High-stress
environments like hospitals, courthouses, or
prisons may demonstrate different intensity
of amygdala response as compared to
entertaining or thrill-seeking environments,
such as theme parks, museums, or shopping malls."
The research team says future studies
will explore this and other questions to help
designers understand how different architectural forms may affect patients and their
overall experience.
In the meantime, key findings and a discussion of the recent study will be presented
at the 2014 Healthcare Design Conference
(San Diego, Nov. 15-18) in the session "Do
Curves Matter? An fMRI Examination of
Neural Reactions to Formal Attributes of
Healthcare Environments." For more information, visit HCDconference.com.
http://www.HCDconference.com http://www.build
Healthcare Design - July 2014

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