Design Parameters of Pleasurable Light Atmosphere

When constructing and designing hospitals of the future, patients, staff and guests are in focus. Designing a healing hospital environment is a very important factor when planning new hospitals. How can aspects such as design, architecture, arts, lights, sounds and materials support and improve the patients' recovery and the satisfaction of staff and guests?

The physical settings, the furnishing, the acoustics, the light - daylight and artificial - are essential when we evaluate the environmental quality. The light is crucial for the experience of safety, mystery, well-being and relaxation in a physical and psychological way.

Because of the complexity of a ward, it is an interesting architectural space to design. It has a range of functions to facilitate and there are many different user needs to meet. A space where the patients are influenced by the surroundings most of the time in a hospitalization, where the patients use a lot of time alone, the doctors working area etc. It is a public domain with a lot of references to the design for the private sphere as a home and the idea of well-being, and a sense of safety.

The aim of the research is:

- To plan the experience of the physical surroundings in order to achieve consistency between expectations and actual experience of space, and produce new knowledge about the art of light sensory qualities and the link between daylight reference and choice of artificial light.

- To achieve an attractive experience of the space and to obtain pleasurable light atmosphere in the wards we have to incorporate daylight and dynamic light.

- To introduce a model of the important parameters influencing the experience of light in wards and expand the subjects: User, space, light, surface, time, locomotion, and energy. Preliminary proposals for design of wards will be presented.