Background
Background
Our project focuses on an interior redesign of the UW Insitute on Human Development and Disability to create an easily navigable and child-friendly environment. The IHDD currently supports more than 200+ patients and services doctors, researchers, and students conducting work in the field of human disability and development. Many parents and children entering the building are in a turbulent time in their lives waiting for a much-anticipated diagnosis and prognosis and both we and the IHDD identify the current environment contributes to that sense of stress and turbulence when it should bring peace and comfort to their visitors.
Thus, our background research focuses on the following domains relevant to improving waiting rooms, particularly for our target audience which includes neurodivergent children, parents, and healthcare workers. The domain of this project are: the effects of physical and environment in a healthcare facility setting, the stress in the waiting room, barriers to access for neurodivergent children and patients, parental challenges in taking care of neurodivergent children, and visual signage and decoration impact on stress.
The following four papers were specifically chosen because of their relevance to our project, each paper focusing on different domain of our project. More specifically, the first two papers focus on the stress factors and environments of healthcare facilities, and the subsequent two focus on potential solutions focusing on the use of visual signage and built environment.
Our sponsor articulates the intimidating nature of their physical building and the potential stress their patients might be under while waiting. Because of these factors we selected the paper Health Inequity by Design: Waiting Rooms and Patient Stress. This paper will give us a better insight as to how specific attributes of a waiting room can contribute to patient stress.
The design of a waiting room exists as part of a larger healthcare system. Oftentimes, a patient’s experience in the waiting room can be one of the most memorable parts of their visit. Just like a waiting room can induce stress, it also has the potential to relieve it. Every element down to the circular shape of a table compared to rectangular edges communicates a different message to its patients. And that message carries on throughout their entire experience at the facility. An example being “patients with a positive frame of mind actually improved vaccine effectiveness.” This paper emphasizes that waiting rooms are more than just a physical space and should be viewed as communication ecology. To produce a positive waiting experience we need to take into consideration the organization of the space, wayfinding, odors, noise, and lighting.
This leads me to wonder what each element of the current design of the UW IHDD building communicates to its patients (lighting, layout, color palette, decor, etc.) and how we can alter parts of the design to achieve our communication goals.
This paper was chosen as part of our domain research as it explores the usage of architectural mapping in order to improve healthcare waiting spaces. As the project description explicitly mentioned the waiting rooms of the UW CHDD building as areas they hope to redesign, this paper can help inform whether or not the use of architectural mapping can be effective in our own design process.
Architectural mapping, also known as behavioral mapping, is a research method used in the field of architecture where researchers record user activities on floor plans, diagrams or maps in order to understand how the physical space is utilized. In this article, the researchers performed unstructured observations and used a computer program (DOTT) to assist in the collection of their data. They used this data to come to quantitative conclusions about occupant type, location, time, and activities, which they wanted to utilize to prototype different seating arrangements in the waiting room.
Two interesting findings from this paper was that 1. Patients and families may use their personal items as a way of creating and expanding their personal space and erecting privacy barriers 2. The most common activity of users in the waiting room was interacting with phones.
This research paper showed the value of architectural mapping as a research method, which makes me wonder how we can utilize it in our own study. While the authors of this paper utilized a computer program to assist in their data collection, the authors acknowledged that the data collection can be done through the use of paper and pen. Analysis of their data was done through excel, another tool that we have easy access to.
Since the first two papers explore issues and patient stressors when in a waiting room we selected the paper Impact of Visual Art on Patient Behavior in the Emergency Department Waiting Room as it builds off that information and explores how potential solutions can impact stressors in a waiting space. More specifically, this paper focuses on the impact of visual art in waiting rooms which is a significant consideration within our project.
In the medical community, art is often used as a positive distraction for patients, reducing focus from anxiety or even pain when patients are subject to external stimulation such as art. Additionally, previous research has also shown that photographs of nature showed more positive stimulation over urban photography art showcasing specifically nature was used in this study.
Thus, as predicted results of the study showed the installation of still and video art depicting nature in the ED (emergency department) waiting rooms showed significant reduction in restlessness, noise level, and number of people staring at others in the room. Additionally, at one site there was also a decrease in the number of queries made at the front desk and an increase in social interaction.
Since our project focuses on turning an intimidating space into a welcoming atmosphere for both parents and their neurodivergent children though potential signs are floors, walls, rooms, etc. the inclusivity of visual stimuli to reduce anxiety for patients could be extremely beneficial. While the study notes previous studies on the use of murals and nature vs urban photography, I think it would be beneficial for us to study further whether art outside of photography could have a positive effect or just color in general for important medical signage.
Neurodivergent-friendly architecture nurtures comfortable, accessible, and welcoming building environments for neurodivergent individuals. This paper introduces and elaborates on a sample of existing spaces that are neurodivergent-friendly, and explores a neurodivergent-friendly building design through the design of a community center building focused on the needs of neurodivergent people and access to resources and assistance that otherwise wouldn’t be available.
Neurodivergence is a topic that is still highly stigmatized; introducing and implementing neurodivergent-friendly spaces into our buildings will open up an avenue of visibility among neurotypical people and, hopefully, adopt these accessibility adjustments as the norm.
This paper brings theory behind how to foster more neurodivergent-friendly and comfortable settings. The author of this paper breaks down barriers to neurodivergent-friendly architecture into three issues; experiential issues, environmental design issues, and social/cultural issues. Experiential issues include misalignments of sensory experiences between neurotypical and neurodivergent people. Environmental design is characterized by spatial density overload (particularly in social settings for neurodivergent people), and wayfinding, both of which affect neurodivergent and neurotypical alike.
In architecture, accessibility for people with varying neurological functions is largely underdressed and largely stigmatized. This paper is centralized on how limiting distractions, sensory zoning, wayfinding aids, calming environments, implementing escape spaces, and reducing stressful situations allows architecture to benefit neurodivergent individuals.
Our project description and brief mentioned an emphasis on physical space and navigational accessibility within the UW CHDD building for parents and their neurodiverse children which this paper addresses very well. It goes in depth into various factors within building design that could impact the neurodivergent experience. This paper focuses on a range of factors from physical spacing and layout of a building, materials used, site design, wayfinding, and acoustic isolations, to name a few. There are many rich strategies outlined in this paper that highlight solutions to make buildings more accessible and comfortable for neurodivergent individuals.
[1] Matthew D. Lamb. 2021. Health inequity by design: Waiting rooms and patient stress. Frontiers in Communication 6 (2021). DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.667381
[2] Elizabeth N. Liao, Lara Z. Chehab, Michelle Ossmann, Benjamin Alpers, Devika Patel, and Amanda Sammann. 2022. Using architectural mapping to understand behavior and space utilization in a surgical waiting room of a safety net hospital. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, 21 (2022), 13870. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192113870
[3] Upali Nanda, Cheryl Chanaud, Michael Nelson, Xi Zhu, Robyn Bajema, and Ben H. Jansen. 2012. Impact of visual art on patient behavior in the Emergency Department waiting room. The Journal of Emergency Medicine 43, 1 (2012), 172–181. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jemermed.2011.06.138
[4] Alexandra Lawberg. 2022. http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/123456789/203183 Michel Mounayar, ed. College of Architecture and Planning Undergraduate Theses (September 2022). DOI:http://dx.doi.org/College of Architecture and Planning Undergraduate Theses