RESOURCES | How data capture can lead to designing better healthcare facilities

Paul Sheldon of AFL Architects writes:

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the responsibility of architects to the communities they serve. Capturing opinions and ideas from invested patient, staff, visitor and surrounding residential groups is an enormous and vital task in the design of a new healthcare development. Architects need to communicate with these diverse groups to ensure the final design is one that responds to their day-to-day needs.

Using every opportunity to engage wider groups

To that end, we decided to take the stakeholder engagement approach to our stand at Healthcare Estates this year, to see what people thought of the wider industry.
Healthcare Estates has been running for over 60 years and is recognised by healthcare specialists as one of the most important events of the year, attracting over 3,000 delegates and visitors. AFL Architects has exhibited at this conference for over 10 years, along with other architects, design team members and subcontractors to NHS Trusts across the country. We naturally wondered what could be learned from such a large sample of the built environment profession.

Using some simple data capturing techniques, including wool data mapping and qualitative questionnaires, we were able to capture visitors’ opinions to see what people really thought of the industry.

What did we learn?

Here’s a summary of the results:

As design professionals, we have a responsibility to create developments that are built on a foundation of inclusivity and collaboration. Treating events like a two-way conversation can result in new insights and ideas, transforming them into fun, engaging discussions.

This article was originally published on Place Resources.