Healing Architecture - Design Thinking as a method

Text: Regula Adams and Sebastian Bäthies

For the next 30 - 40 years, a new health care building will have a decisive influence on which processes take place, how the cooperation between the specialists among themselves, the safety and well-being of the customers and users is designed.

Here «Healing Architecture» has a key function.

The challenge is to build the hospital or nursing home of the future. 
Due to the complexity of existing health care buildings, there is a great danger of orienting new buildings to the processes and structures of the past.
On closer inspection, many of the newer health buildings already show considerable deficits. One discovers deficiencies in terms of processes and customer centricity and thus an insufficient implementation of «Healing Architecture».
Dr. Regula Adams, organizational psychologist at Zingg-Lamprecht, led through the keynote event «Healing Architecture - Design Thinking as a method in health construction». Adams has many years of experience as an organizational developer and project manager in health and social facilities and initially referred to the following challenges in construction projects in the health and social sector:

According to Adams, these are «the prison of experience» of employees, accompanied by silo-like organizational structures and insufficiently described IST processes.

The big challenge here is the definition of the TARGET processes and the corresponding room functions - again, if the ACTUAL processes are not available in writing.
If this is neglected - for example due to lack of time - negative effects on future operating costs are inevitable.

The good news is: these challenges can be mastered!

According to Dr Regula Adams, this is possible through early deployment of multidisciplinary design teams. The room design is prototyped in a simulation zone and processes are played through down to the smallest detail. The patient perspective is systematically ensured through the use of customer interviews, Gemba walks, personas and role plays.

In order to understand why Design Thinking is a promising tool to realize Healing Architecture, the special features of the method are described below.

Design Thinking is a user-centered and iterative method for solving complex problems and has established itself as the preferred approach in innovation development worldwide. The design thinking process forms the core of the method, which focuses on the users and their needs. 

The steps are shown in the graphic.

What distinguishes design thinking from similar methods? 
Centring on the users is an integral part of the procedure: Interviews are carried out and previous operations and the behavior of the users are observed and documented. 
By creating so-called patient experience chains, which describe which ways patients travel through a hospital and which experiences they make, you get an impressive picture of the effects on well-being.

Dr Regula Adams had the experience: "To make such a change of perspective can be the idea of «What is a good hospital?» radically change and at the same time help overcome gaps and create a common denominator in interprofessional project teams. 
In addition, these findings provide important impulses for the further course of a project and thus contribute significantly to planning and cost security.

Prototypes Building and testing are important process steps in design thinking. Many people who are working with this method for the first time are positively surprised by how powerful the construction and testing of prototypes is. Accustomed to excessive and abstract discussions at meeting tables, the opposite is done in the application of design thinking: Even in the initial phase of projects, rooms and processes are prototyped and played through in so-called simulation zones using simple means such as partitions and cardboard boxes. The motto is: «Everything should be concrete, tangible and tangible». 
The simulation zone is a learning, project and discussion zone at the same time. According to Dr Regula Adams, change management is always part of the application of design thinking. This is because cooperation in the simulation zone allows common gaps between hierarchies and professional groups to be overcome and thus creates space for change and innovation. Another advantage of this method.

The prototyping of rooms and processes is often supplemented with simulations on the table top.

As part of the 2nd impulse event of Zingg-Lamprecht, Regula Adams invited the guests to gain an insight into design thinking using this method. The basis for this was the patient experience chain of an elderly patient, who had to make some examinations in the hospital the day before her inpatient admission and had different experiences.
Long waiting times, complicated paths and general overload on the part of the patient were visible in the patient experience chain. The participants simulated the patient’s path on the table, ascertaining her needs and possible process optimizations. 

In a second step, the participants derived requirements for construction and interior design and immediately implemented them on the table top.

The results are promising: services come to the patient, functional zones are implemented and comfort zones were created with pragmatic means.

The conclusion of the 2nd Zingg-Lamprecht impulse event «Healing Architecture - Design Thinking as a method in health construction» is: A change of perspective from the patient’s point of view opens up new access to needs and processes and enables more effective solution finding in the construction project.

In the last 20 years we have successfully implemented more than 80 projects in the health and social sector and are thus one of the most competent contacts in the market and are at your side with technical expertise and experience in each of your projects with words and deeds. 

We have a broad-based expert team - consisting of a gerontopsychologist, work and organizational psychologist, architect and interior designer. This diversity of perspectives and competencies enables us to develop and implement human-centered, innovative and functional room and furniture solutions - always in close cooperation and coordination with our customers.
With us you can achieve the best for your project!