The Patient Room. Planning, Design, Layout

The patient room is the smallest cell of the hospital organism. Its layout determines the structure of the ward and is therefore a decisive factor for the entire patient's sense of well-being can be positively influenced by the design: homely materials, an attractive view and sufficient privacy are crucial objectives.

Equally important are the working conditions for the staff, especially short distances and an efficient care routine. Finally, even the risk of infection can be reduced by a conscientiously planned room layout.

This comprehensive and scientifically grounded publication provides a systematic overview of the design task patient room and demonstrates exemplary ­solutions: both typologically and in selected case studies. Analyses of floor plan typologies show a broad range of options for patient rooms. The prototype of an infection-preventive patient room, developed at TU Braunschweig in cooperation with Charité Berlin, is documented in detail. 24 international projects are

The Patient Room

building. Many requirements have to be met. The

The Patient Room

Planning, Design, Layout

presented with instructive photography and floor plans drawn to scale.

Wolfgang Sunder Julia Moellmann Oliver Zeise Lukas Adrian Jurk

Preface 7

A

Fundamentals

The Emergence of Hospitals 10 From the Monastic Hospice to the Modern Clinic The Nursing Ward Environment 15 Current Care Settings and Their Challenges Healthcare-Associated Infections 21

B

Typologies of the Patient Room

The Floor Plan of a Two-Bed Room 28 Qualitative Evaluation of Two-Bed Rooms 38 Typological Evaluation of Two-Bed Rooms 44

Rasmus Leistner

Material Applications and Material Ageing in Hospitals 24 Inka Dreßler, Katharina Schütt

Selected Case Studies General Hospitals Trillium Health Centre Mississauga, Canada 66 Zollikerberg Hospital – New West Wing Zollikerberg, Switzerland 70 Zollikerberg Hospital – Renovation of East Wing Zollikerberg, Switzerland 74 Hvidovre Hospital Hvidovre, Denmark 78 Lauf District Hospital Lauf an der Pegnitz, Germany 82 AZ Zeno Knokke-Heist, Belgium 86 Haraldsplass Hospital Bergen, Norway 90 Solothurn Public Hospital Solothurn, Switzerland 94 New North Zealand Hospital Hillerød, Denmark 100 Südspidol Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxemburg 104

C

Specialised Hospitals Jugenheim District Hospital Seeheim-Jugenheim, Germany 108 Sana Clinic Munich Munich-Sendling, Germany 112 BGU Accident and Emergency Hospital Frankfurt am Main, Germany 118 Princess Máxima Center Utrecht, the Netherlands 122 St Joseph-Stift Dresden Dresden, Germany 128 St Gallen Geriatric Clinic St Gallen, Switzerland 132 Uster Hospital Uster, Switzerland 136 University Hospitals Surgical Centre Erlangen University Hospital Erlangen, Germany 138 Crona Clinic Tübingen University Hospital Tübingen, Germany 142 Erasmus MC Rotterdam, the Netherlands 146 Oncological Centre Leuven University Hospital Leuven, Belgium 150 Paediatric Clinic Freiburg University Hospital Freiburg, Germany 154 Children’s University Hospital Zurich Zurich, Switzerland 158 Münster University Hospital Münster, Germany 161

Building Structures in German Hospitals 164

Prototype of a Patient Room – the KARMIN Project Architecture of the Patient Room 170 Planning and Design 178 Colour and Materials Concept 183 Lighting Concept 185 Building the Prototype 196 Completed Prototype and Use Scenarios 198

Furniture and Equipment 206 The Disinfectant Dispenser 210 The Patient Bedside Cabinet 224 The Bedside Terminal 230

Conclusion 237 KARMIN Project Team 239

Appendix 240 Glossary 240 About the Authors 245 Subject Index 246 Index of Names, Places and Projects 249 Illustration Credits 250 Acknowledgements 252

B

Typologies of the Patient Room

The Floor Plan of a Two-Bed Room

8 m² 1.2 m

8 m²

1 Mindestanforderung Minimum standard

28

Typologies

1.2 m

barrierearm/-frei 2 Barrier-free/low-barrier

The design of patient rooms is a particularly demanding task that generations of architects, hospital planners and interior designers have grappled with. The challenge is to accommodate a wide range of specific needs and users’ interests in a room of limited size. Despite its small floor area, the patient room is the most frequently reproduced unit in a hospital and can quickly become the primary determinant for a hospital design. The repetition of the rooms in a ward is not only legible from outside on the building’s façade; it can also define the typology, for example in the case of a “bed tower block” through vertical repetition where the upper floors are typically exclusively patient wards. The patient room is therefore a central element of the planning of a hospital.

This section discusses the planning principles for designing a two-bed room and examines its constituent structural elements.

First and foremost, the design of a patient room is always a specific, individual response to the existing needs and prevailing contextual conditions. Whether the design is for a new building, for an extension to an existing building or for the renovation and upgrading of existing facilities, the context and the available budget are key determining factors for the room design.

Likewise, regulations and guidelines have a direct impact on room planning and floor plan design and can sometimes be very constraining by defining minimum distances and optimised care provision pro­ cedures that must be ensured without exceeding a certain room size or financial parameters.

While this may create the impression that there is little remaining scope for design, a wide range of different patient room designs have been created over the past few decades. Architects and hospital planners have succeeded in developing and implementing various original concepts, especially for two-bed rooms, often in the context of clinical studies. A study of these room types reveals the entire spectrum of design possibilities.

Two-bed rooms are a particularly interesting typology to study.

This chapter examines the different options in the design of a patient room and the design principles that guide them. It details the design possibilities available to the planner when designing a patient room and presents them in a scheme with the aid of a corresponding example.

This study takes the floor plan as its basis and therefore describes only those aspects that actually manifest themselves in or influence the floor plan, and that can be seen as design principles. Likewise, it also considers the essential fittings and equipment that influence the room layout.

A key aspect that has a decisive impact on the floor plan design of two-bed patient rooms is the wet cell – the patient’s bathroom within the room. It determines the remaining layout of the patient room and often also the placement of other key fittings within the room. To understand how the different elements in the room interact, it is instructive to look at each part of a room configuration and identify how these can be grouped according to recognisable interdependencies or principles.

The Patient Room The patient room is divided into an area for the patient and the corresponding patient bathroom.

Floor area requirements Minimum standard While the hospital building regulations of many German federal states prescribe only 8 m² per bed place, the State Office for Health and Social Affairs in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern states that a two-bed room should have an area of at least 21 m². In either case, the minimum distances must be observed → Fig. 1.

3 Standard floor plan Regelgrundriss

Barrier-free/low-barrier standard In the context of the floor plan, accessibility considerations primarily concern spaces of free movement. At least one area of 120 × 120 cm must be available for turning and swivelling, and walking and mobility aids must be available in the room and additionally along one long side of the bed (DIN 18040-2). As not all accessibility requirements can be evaluated based on the floor plan, we use the term “low-barrier” to denote the minimising of barriers → Fig. 2.

4 Floor plan combination/variation Variationsgrundriss

Floor plan types on a ward Standard floor plan The standard room layout is the most frequently found room type on a ward → Fig. 3.

5 Floor plan variation 6 Specific floor plan Kombinationsgrundriss

Sondergrundriss

Floor plan combination/variation Different floor plan types can be combined, e.g. single and two-bed rooms. In such cases a two-bed room may be a combination of two types or a modified variant of a floor plan layout → Figs. 4, 5.

Specific floor plan Particular situations may require a specific, atypical floor plan arrangement, such as in the case of corner rooms or rooms that connect to other functional spaces. Where these are a response to structural constraints in the building plan, they typically recur at the same position on each floor → Fig. 6.

Additive principles for patient rooms 7 Same-handed Same-handed

The most common additive principle is a repeating row of patient rooms along a ward corridor. Different repetition patterns are possible: Same-handed The same-handed configuration is the simplest form of the additive repetition of rooms along a hospital corridor. Each room is identical in its orientation and fittings. The name derives from the underlying principle that carers can always tend to patients from the same preferred side → Fig. 7.

8 Mirrored floor plan Grundrissspiegelung

29

Floor Plan

Mirrored floor plan Each patient room and the orientation of fittings and equipment is mirrored along the dividing wall. This configuration is popular because it allows a common vertical duct to serve two adjacent wet rooms, effectively halving the amount of plumbing and supply lines, saving materials and costs. The repetition principle is like that of the samehanded configuration, except that each repeated unit comprises two rooms with mirrored layouts → Fig. 8.

9 Floor plan combination

Floor plan combination or variation With this configuration, a room layout may be combined with another typological variation of the same floor plan, or alternatively a completely different floor plan type. This pairing is then repeated as often as needed → Figs. 9, 10.

Grundrisskombination

Unsystematic arrangement In some cases, the additive principle follows no clear pattern. The position of necessary functional rooms, or the unique structural configuration of a building may hinder the application of a clear repeating arrangement. In such cases, varying room layouts are typically used → Fig. 11.

10 Floor plan variation Grundrissvariation

Room depth The room depths given here are defined in terms of the bed placement principle rather than a precise dimension. There are two main arrangements for two-bed rooms: One bed deep The room depth is defined by the placement of one bed arranged parallel, orthogonal or rotated at an angle to the ward corridor → Figs. 12, 13.

11 Unsystematic arrangement

Two beds deep The depth of the room must accommodate two beds placed along the crosswall, positioned parallel, orthogonal or rotated at an angle to the ward corridor → Figs. 14, 15.

Unsystematische Anordnung

Room geometry

1 2

Ein-Bett-Tiefe 1

12, 13 One bed deep room

2

14, 15 Two beds deep Zwei-Bett-Tiefe Zwei-Bett-Tiefe room

Any number of room geometries are conceivable for patient rooms, but not all are practical or realisable. The key determining factors are their potential for useful repetition and their contribution to forming a ward. Rectangular floor plans are therefore predestined, but various hospitals show that other, more complex floor plan configurations are also possible. This results in two typical types of room geometry:

Compact spatial geometry (rectangular) A rectangular floor plan is compact and simplifies the arrangement of fittings and equipment in the room → Fig. 16.

Ein-Bett-Tiefe

Complex spatial geometry (polygonal) A polygonal or non-rectangular floor plan figure can be applied for specific situations, for example to ensure optimum visibility of the bed area from the ward corridor. As most standardised fittings and objects, such as patient cabinets and tables, are rectangular, their placement is more complex. In some cases, custom-made fittings may be necessary → Fig. 17.

Kompakt 16 Compact spatial geometry (rectangular)

30

Komplex 17 Complex spatial geometry (polygonal)

Typologies

Typological Evaluation of Two-Bed Rooms

44

Typologies

In a patient's room the bed position and the position of the wet room already have a decisive influence on the further configuration of the floor plan. Especially for two-bed rooms this results in a wide range of possibilities. In the following, examples of 18 very different two-bed room floor plans are shown. The most effective way to compare and evaluate the respective qualities of different floor plan layouts would be to study how they are used in everyday clinical practice, but this is not practical, neither in the context of this study nor in reality.

Nevertheless, this typological study instead analyses and evaluates the configuration of various two-bed rooms using their floor plans. By considering each aspect of the room’s design individually in terms of its potential qualities, we can build up a qualitative profile for each type of floor plan. The evaluation matrix on the right details each of the spatial design aspects along with their respective qualitative characteristics already introduced → Qualitative Evaluation of Two-Bed Rooms, pp. 38–43.

Each of the 18 different floor plans is briefly introduced. Then the plans are analysed using this matrix to identify their respective features and corresponding qualitative characteristics. Using a points system, an overall evaluation of the floor plan can be obtained. Mutually exclusive qualities are not added together – e.g. a standard room plan cannot also be a special case solution – and where certain characteristics are not present throughout – for example for only one of the two beds – only half a point is added. Adding the points together produces a maximum rating for each qualitative characteristic.

The points are then used to generate diagrams that show a graphical representation of the qualitative evaluation of the respective floor plan layout. Each graphic provides a visual indication of the qualitative characteristics of the respective floor plan typology.

The intention here is not to propose model floor plan types for twobed patient rooms, because, as discussed earlier in the introduction, each patient room design is an individual response to the prevailing context and specific needs of the respective clinic. While the configurations shown here illustrate room layout principles, they cannot serve as a universally applicable solution for every case. Instead they show the relationship between optimised operational and constructional solutions and their potential qualities in use. As such, they reveal the complexity of the design task of two-bed patient rooms.

One should also note that achieving a “maximum score” in all aspects is neither practicable nor feasible in the actual context of a real clinic. A “maximum” variant would have two entrances and two nested wet cells for a one bed deep room, guest accommodation, a balcony etc. Instead, this qualitative study aims to illustrate the relationships between built, process-related and emotional factors.

Patient room Floor area

Floor plan types

Additive principles

Room depth

Room geometry

Zoning

Room entry

Ward corridor

Flexibility

Fittings

Openings in the façade

Bed positions

Views in and out

Overview of the individual design aspects of a patient room and the corresponding potential qualities they have in the patient room.

Minimum standard Barrier-free/low-barrier standard

● ● ● ● ● ●

Standard floor plan Floor plan combination/variation Specific floor plan

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Same-handed

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Mirrored floor plan Floor plan combination/variation Unsystematic arrangement

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One bed deep Two beds deep Compact Complex

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Two-zone room

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Three-zone room Three-zone plus room Single entrance Two entrances

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Entrances flush with corridor Alcove in front of room Bedside cabinet positionable on both sides Retrofittable airlock

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● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Standard fittings Staff workplace Washbasin

● ● ●

● ● ● ● ●

Privacy screen between patients Patient desk Guest accommodation Window with standard sill Bathroom with window

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Room with window and seat-level sill Internal façade extension External façade extension

● ● ●

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Beds side by side Beds opposite Beds staggered opposite one another Beds at right angles Beds turned towards each other Beds facing apart Patient’s view outdoors Staff’s view of the patient

● ● ● ● ●

● ● ● ● ●

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

● ● ● ● ●

Patient bathroom Floor area

Position

Additive principles

Use

Fittings

45

Minimum standard Barrier-free/low-barrier standard Inboard

● ● ● ● ● ●

Outboard

Alternating inboard/outboard Nested Same-handed

● ●

●

● ●

Mirrored floor plan Floor plan combination/variation One bathroom for shared use Two bathrooms for shared use Two bathrooms for separate use

● ●

Standard fittings with shower Second washbasin Second WC Sliding door

Typological Evaluation

● ●

● ● ●

● ● ● ●

● ● ● ●

● Structural complexity ● Infection prevention potential ● Workplace quality and safety ● Spatial qualities ● Patient safety ● Patient satisfaction and privacy

Complex room layout with balcony

The angled, polygonal floor plan is particularly suitable in a same-handed arrangement of the rooms. In the example shown here also the patient in the rear bed has an unimpeded visual relationship with the outside.

In addition to the seating area in the room, the balcony offers another place to sit.

Patient room

Structural complexity Infection prevention potential

Minimum standard

Workplace quality and safety

Standard floor plan

● ●

Same-handed

● ●

Two beds deep Complex Three-zone plus room

●

● ● ● ● ●

Spatial qualities Patient safety

Patient satisfaction and privacy

Single entrance Alcove in front of room

Bedside cabinet positionable on both sides Retrofittable airlock

● ●

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Standard fittings Staff workplace Washbasin

● ● ●

● ●

Window with standard sill External façade extension Beds turned towards each other

Patient's view outdoors (2 beds) Staff's view of the patient (1 bed)

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

● ● ● ● ●

Patient bathroom

Minimum standard Inboard Same-handed

● ●

● ● ●

One bathroom for shared use

Standard fittings with shower Sliding door

46

Typologies

● ● ● ● ●

Layout with outboard bathroom with window

An outboard bathroom positioned on the outer wall has the advantage that it can be supplied with daylight through a window. In addition, the view of the patients is unobstructed when staff enter the room. At the same time, however, the bathroom limits the window area and the bed positions move further into the room.

Patient room

Structural complexity Infection prevention potential

Minimum standard

Workplace quality and safety

Standard floor plan

Spatial qualities

Mirrored floor plan Two beds deep

Patient safety

Compact

Patient satisfaction and privacy

Three-zone room

● ● ● ● ●

Single entrance Entrances flush with corridor

●

Patient desk

Window with standard sill Bathroom with window

● ●

●

●

Beds side by side

Patient's view outdoors (1 bed) Staff's view of the patient (2 beds)

● ●

●

●

●

Patient bathroom

Minimum standard

Outboard

Mirrored floor plan One bathroom for shared use Standard fittings with shower

47

Typological Evaluation

●

● ●

Princess Máxima Center New clinic for paediatric oncology

The compelling design concept for the Princess Máxima Center with its numerous communal areas and play corners in the patient rooms aims not just to make the young patients’ stay as pleasant and free from anxiety as possible. It also includes a specially developed area for parents with a separate bathroom – an interesting variation on the idea of rooming-in that will for sure become even more relevant in future.

Architects LIAG architects Interior designers Mmek Client Board Princess Máxima Center, Utrecht NL Location Utrecht, the Netherlands Completion 2018

Beds per floor 40 Net area, single room 16.08 m² + 4.41 m² bathroom Net area, guest room 11.21 m² + 2.39 m² bathroom

The Princess Máxima Center is a centre for healthcare and research in one that focuses on treating children with cancer. At a size of 45,000 m², it is the largest paediatric oncology centre in Europe. Developed in cooperation with Kopvol, an architecture practice specialising in psycho­ logical aspects of architecture, the spatial concept aims to create a place where young patients feel safe and can spend time with their parents and relatives with primary focus on their recovery. The wards consist exclusively of single rooms, to which a guest room is connected.

A sliding door connects the two areas of the room and creates a visual link between the two sleeping areas, but two bathrooms and separate entrances from the ward corridor mean that they can also be used independently and flexibly.

Pergola-like balconies, most of which are arranged around the inner courtyards, provide a connection with outdoors from each room and are reached through the parents’ room so that children cannot go outside unattended. There are also specially designed communal areas for different age groups that address the different interests and needs of the children and promote social interaction between them. In addition, spaces are provided for cooking and socialising at the dining table and for playing together with visiting grandparents. These facilities contribute to the homely atmosphere of the Princess Máxima Center.

Each patient room has a nurses’ workplace with a washbasin and adequate storage for materials, and the bathrooms for the patients are barrier-free with sliding doors. In addition to parental supervision from the neighbouring space, a glass door and an additional window ensure optimal visibility of the bed area from the corridor. Nurses can oversee the patient from the workstation next to the entrance to each room.

From here they can record patient data without needing to return to a central nurses’ station, avoiding the risk of potential mix-ups. By making it possible to access the digital patient record right next to the patient room, no unnecessary equipment need be brought into the room.

The parents’ area is understandably more simply equipped, but an integral refrigerator offers a level of comfort appropriate for longer stays.

The low window sills are articulated as benches with storage boxes beneath in which toys can be stowed. Patients have a good view of the courtyards and outdoor areas, whose playfully designed playgrounds are intended to encourage children to romp in the fresh air.

1

1 Site plan, 1 : 20,000 2 View of the clinic 3 Ward floor plan, 1 : 1000

122

Typologies

2

3

123

Case Studies

4

5

124

Typologies

6

7

4 View of the balconies from the courtyard 5 Outdoor area in an inner courtyard 6 View of atrium 7 A communal play area 8 A workstation for nursing staff in the corridor

125

Princess Máxima Center

8

9

10

11

126

Typologies

12

9 View of the entrances and bathrooms in both halves of the room 10 Patient room with the adjacent parent area 11 Floor plan of the patient rooms, 1 : 100 12 Patient room with view of the balconies

127

Princess Máxima Center

Glossary Accessibility Accessibility is defined in § 4 of the German “Equality for Persons with Disabilities Act” (BGG) as: “The term accessible (barrier-free) can be applied to buildings and other structures, means of transport, technical commodities, information processing systems, acoustic and visual information sources and communication facilities, as well as other designed environments if persons with disabilities are always able to find, access and use them unaided in the usual manner and without any particular difficulty. The use of relevant disability aids is permitted.”

Adherence Adherence refers to the extent to which a person’s behaviour corresponds to the recommendations agreed with the therapist, for example how regularly they take their medication or observe a dietary regime.

Affordance Affordance is the quality or property of an object that defines its possible uses or makes clear how it can or should be used, for example an armchair suggests to us that we can sit on it. This signifying character can derive from its physical, material, logical or cultural character.

Airlock An airlock is a transitional space between two areas whose environments should not mix, due to different air pressure, different sterility levels, different contamination degrees or different cleanliness, etc.

“Aktion Saubere Hände” “Aktion Saubere Hände” (Clean Hands Campaign) is a national campaign promoting hand hygiene by several German healthcare institutions. It aims to contribute to increasing compliance with hand disinfection recommendations and thus to the reduction of hospital infections.

Antibiotic An antimicrobial substance that acts against pathogens and is derived from the metabolic products of microorganisms.

Aseptic Sterile, free from contamination.

Automation Building automation stands for the automated control of technical building functions such as heating, ventilation or lighting. In patient rooms this can apply, for example, to the periodic controlled flushing of water pipes to prevent the build-up of germs in infrequently-used water pipes.

Bacteria The smallest organism consisting of only one cell, which can give rise to decay, disease or fermentation.

Bedcentricity The term refers to an organisational focus (or design focus) on the patient bed. While it has logistical advantages and the patient is easier to find, it can impede the process of recovery by making patients too passive.

240

Appendix

Bedside terminal A computer tablet for the patient’s use near the bed, used for requesting information from patient, providing hospital and treatment-related information, ordering meals and TV/media entertainment.

Bed tower A high-rise building predominantly containing nursing wards, especially on the upper floors.

Biofilm A biofilm is a thin film of slime or fluid adhering to a solid surface that contains communities of microorganisms in a self-produced matrix.

Biocide A category of disinfectants. A chemical used for room and surface disinfection.

Candela A physical quantity of light and a unit of luminous intensity.

Care categories Hospitals can be ranked according to the intensity of possible patient care. There are four different categories: basic care, standard care, priority care and maximum care.

Care unit An alternative term for a nursing ward, often with a special purpose, such as an intensive care unit (ICU) or medium care unit (see also IMC).

Chain of infection Describes the sequence and route of transmission of a pathogen.

Chemotherapy Drug therapy for the treatment of cancer diseases or infections.

Chronic disease Chronic diseases require constant medical treatment and monitoring.

The most common chronic diseases include cancer, cardiovascular diseases, multiple sclerosis, rheumatism and epilepsy.

Cleanability Cleanability describes the surface condition of a material with respect to how well it can be optimally cleaned to prevent microbial contamination.

Coefficient A constant quantity placed before a variable as a multiplying factor.

Cohorting An infection containment approach in which patients with the same pathogens are isolated together.

Compliance The willingness of a person to actively participate in certain measures.

Corona pandemic The Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19 pandemic) is the worldwide outbreak of the new respiratory disease COVID-19 in 2019.

About the Authors Wolfgang Sunder studied architecture in Münster, Zurich and Berlin and earned a doctoral degree. After completing his studies in 2002, he continued his professional career with Zaha Hadid Architects in London.

As head of research at the Institute of Construction Design, Industrial and Health Care Building (IKE) of the TU Braunschweig, he participated in various research projects in the field of healthcare buildings and advised hospital operators in their strategic orientation. Since 2015, he has been head of the construction section in the InfectControl research consortium. The aim here is the development of infection-preventive measures in the planning of healthcare buildings. Dr Sunder is the author of the publication Bauliche Hygiene im Klinikbau (Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung, 2018).

Julia Moellmann studied architecture and urban design at the Leibniz University Hanover, the Politecnico di Milano and the State University for Architecture and Civil Engineering in St Petersburg. Since 2017, she has been a research associate at the Institute of Construction Design, Industrial and Health Care Building (IKE) of the TU Braunschweig in the field of health buildings. For the KARMIN project she studied floor plan typologies of patient rooms in national and international hospitals and worked on the concept and design of the patient room demonstrator.

Oliver Zeise first trained as a carpenter and then studied architecture at the University of Applied Sciences Lübeck and the TU Braunschweig.

He then worked in architectural offices in Hamburg and Lüneburg. Since 2016, he has been research associate at the Institute of Construction Design, Industrial and Health Care Building (IKE) of the TU Braunschweig.

In the KARMIN project he deals with structural infection prevention in the context of the patient room. The planning in detail and the realisation of the prototype with numerous industrial partners are his priorities. He is also active as a practicing architect.

Lukas Adrian Jurk is a medical and speculative designer, studied industrial and car design at the University of Fine Arts Braunschweig, at the Universidad de Chile, Santiago, and social design at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Already in the context of his bachelor thesis he dealt with design in a hospital context. He is a research associate at the Institute of Construction Design, Industrial and Health Care Building (IKE) at the TU Braunschweig. Since 2020, he has also been a strategic partner in the collective The Complicity. His freelance work in the field of biodesign has been shown in international exhibitions.

245

Authors

Rasmus Leistner is a specialist in hygiene and environmental medicine and infectiology. He works as a hospital hygienist at the Institute for Hygiene and Environmental Medicine and as a clinical infectiologist at the Clinic for Gastroenterology, Infectiology and Rheumatology at the Charité Berlin. He is a consultant for the National Reference Centre for the Surveillance of Nosocomial Infections. Dr Leistner is the author of numerous publications on infection prevention, epidemiology and infectiology. He is co-editor of the journal Krankenhaushygiene Up2Date.

Inka Dreßler is an industrial and civil engineer. She is a senior engineer for the field of building materials at the Institute for Building Materials, Solid Construction and Fire Protection (iBMB) of the TU Braunschweig.

Her research interests include structural hygiene in hospitals.

Katharina Schütt has a degree in economic and civil engineering from the TU Braunschweig, the Chalmers Tekniska Högskola (Gothenburg, Sweden) and the University of Rhode Island (Kingston, RI, USA). She works as project coordinator in turnkey construction, with a focus on hospital construction. In her master thesis at the TU Braunschweig she investigated the influence of material ageing on the properties of hospital-standard solid surfaces.

The patient room is the smallest cell of the hospital organism. Its layout determines the structure of the ward and is therefore a decisive factor for the entire patient's sense of well-being can be positively influenced by the design: homely materials, an attractive view and sufficient privacy are crucial objectives.

Equally important are the working conditions for the staff, especially short distances and an efficient care routine. Finally, even the risk of infection can be reduced by a conscientiously planned room layout.

This comprehensive and scientifically grounded publication provides a systematic overview of the design task patient room and demonstrates exemplary ­solutions: both typologically and in selected case studies. Analyses of floor plan typologies show a broad range of options for patient rooms. The prototype of an infection-preventive patient room, developed at TU Braunschweig in cooperation with Charité Berlin, is documented in detail. 24 international projects are

The Patient Room

building. Many requirements have to be met. The

The Patient Room

Planning, Design, Layout

presented with instructive photography and floor plans drawn to scale.

Wolfgang Sunder Julia Moellmann Oliver Zeise Lukas Adrian Jurk