Beyond ‘Biophilic’ to ALIVE: a ‘Landscape-led’ Approach to Healthcare Design

Synopsis

Is the ‘tyranny of the pretty’ in danger of shifting our focus away from achieving value and measurable health outcomes in healthcare design?

‘Biophilic’ design is an architectural concept that aims to integrate natural elements and systems into the built environment to strengthen human connection with nature.

We believe that there is growing evidence that the notion of ‘Biophilic’ design, particularly as commonly applied to healthcare settings, is in danger of being oversimplistic. Healthcare environments are complex and highly dynamic. The pressures that are applied can rapidly change and this demands that the environment is highly adaptable and responsive to the needs of staff, patients and budgets!

Our focus should not be purely on the presence of ‘nature’ but on the truly functional. The aspiration should be to achieve measurable and sustainable healthcare outcomes.

This presentation will use the multiple award-winning ‘Meadow Green Outdoor Dementia Ward’ at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bromsgrove as its basis. Building on this, we will offer insights into a developed approach that moves beyond the ‘Biophilic’.

This approach we have come to term ‘ALIVE’. ALIVE stands for Ambition, Lexicon, Individual, Value and Effectiveness, which we will explain. We’ll be supported by Mike Taylor, Capital Programme Manager for the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust.

We have worked with Mike and colleagues at the Trust for the last twenty years. The presentation will illustrate and evidence some of the findings from this relationship and will point to improvements in the philosophy of design of the external environment in healthcare settings.