Spatial Configuration for Restorative Healthcare Environment Design: Focusing on the Outpatient Clinic of a Children’s Rehabilitation Hospital in South Korea

초록

In many theoretical and empirical studies on design issues for restorative healthcare facilities, spatial configuration that promotes clarity in space arrangement and wayfinding inside the hospital has been emphasized as a significant design approach to mitigate stressful experiences and to enhance restorative quality of the healthcare environment in hospitals. This is also applicable to the healthcare setting for children with physical disabilities. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between physical spatial configuration and subjective restorative quality of the hospital environment, focusing on children’s rehabilitation hospitals, as there is insufficient empirical research on the subject in this specific setting. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first segment, the physical spatial layout of a children’s rehabilitation hospital in Seoul was analyzed, with an emphasis on three major patient zones in the outpatient clinic: the entrance lobby, doctors’ examination, and physical therapy zones. Using the space syntax tool, the parameters such as the spatial depth, connectivity, and integration in the outpatient clinic were measured. The correlation between the connectivity and integration was then computed to examine the spatial intelligibility of the outpatient clinic with a special focus on the issues of spatial access and wayfinding in the outpatient clinic. In the second segment, the ease of wayfinding and the restorative quality of each zone and the outpatient clinic in the hospital are examined by surveying hospital users?parents on behalf of children with physical disabilities. Based on the investigation of the relationship between the physical spatial layout and its restorative quality perceived by users, design implications and possible future improvements are discussed to enhance therapeutic hospital experiences for children with physical disabilities.