Health and well-being

From a scientific perspective, it is well known that the built environment can contribute to health and well-being. Appropriate facilities related to indoor climate, daylight and artificial lighting, sound and acoustics, nature and gardens, art, interior design and layout, wayfinding and views all have a positive impact — on patients’ recovery, the quality of life of residents, and the performance of care providers.

As the Research Centre for Built Environment NoorderRuimte, we aim to be a key player in projects focused on evidence-based design and healing environments.

Many organisations still seem unaware of the latent benefits of these innovations and the wide range of possibilities to apply them in practice. As the Research Centre for Built Environment NoorderRuimte, we aim to be a key player in projects focused on evidence-based design and healing environments, such as the Groningen project Healthy Cities. These developments are closely connected to the strategic themes Energy and Healthy Ageing of Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen, with a focus on the built environment.

In-depth focus: Health and well-being

To better understand what the Research Centre for Built Environment NoorderRuimte does, we further elaborate on the theme Health and Well-being in the explanation below.

The built environment can have a positive influence on people’s recovery. It can reduce anxiety, stress, pain and depression — in contrast to the sick building syndrome, where users report headaches, fatigue and irritation (eyes, nose, throat). The built environment can therefore promote people’s health and well-being, but it can also have negative effects.

For the theme Health and Well-being (also referred to as healthy buildings or healthy work environments), we explore which features of the built environment — building, interior, technology and surroundings — contribute positively to people’s health and which negative influences can be reduced or removed (healing environments, evidence-based design, biophilic design). With this knowledge, we aim to raise awareness among designers, decision-makers and users to improve the health and well-being of building occupants. We do this across three domains: a) cure, b) care, and c) organisations (outside the healthcare sector).

Cure

Firstly, our research centre focuses on the design of healthcare facilities for short-stay patients, where recovery is central — such as hospitals. The built environment can influence anxiety, stress, pain, depression and delirium. Designers are advised, for example, to consider the advantages of single rooms (quieter, fewer infections), silence (faster recovery), distraction through views of art and nature (stress reduction), more efficient wayfinding (stress reduction), better ventilation (healthier indoor climate, fewer infections), improved lighting (fewer fall incidents), and more efficient routing (reduced staff fatigue).

In addition, the architecture must support healthcare delivery. The building must be efficient — supporting the work in such a way that it can be carried out with minimal effort and cost. It must also be resilient — flexible enough to accommodate future organisational changes without negatively affecting staff performance. In this perspective, the built environment can actively contribute to patient recovery, satisfaction and quality of care.

Care

Secondly, NoorderRuimte focuses on the design of long-term care facilities where patients live as residents, such as housing for people with disabilities, older adults and nursing homes. Increasingly, these buildings are integrated with regular housing and located within neighbourhoods. As more people grow older, they will depend on a mix of existing care institutions (such as hospitals, general practitioners and pharmacies), new commercial initiatives (such as private clinics and care providers) and their own social networks. People will need to become more self-reliant, which will strongly influence the (re)design of the built environment.

As people live independently for longer, their needs change over time — from different interior layouts to new building-related and domestic services (age-proof housing, independent living). We are also interested in the built environment of other care providers, such as health centres, primary care and palliative care.

These architectural (re)designs should also stimulate community spirit within neighbourhoods and regions, helping to prevent loneliness among older adults or other vulnerable users. The declining demand for large-scale residential or care facilities will likely lead to more vacancies, a trend reinforced by legal changes such as the separation of housing and care. In this context, the interaction between users and emerging collaborations will impose new requirements on the built environment.

Organisations (outside the healthcare sector)

Finally, our research centre also focuses on promoting health and well-being within the built environment of organisations that are not necessarily active in the healthcare sector. In this context, we assess workplaces, evaluate the (perceived) health and well-being of employees, and make recommendations for (re)designing the built environment to create healthier workplaces and workforces. Changes in buildings can have a positive influence on employees — or remove negative ones.

This approach is also applied to other contexts, such as education, prisons and public spaces. For example, in the (re)design of a primary school without fences that creates an open system with the local community — a safe playground where children can play after school hours, where parents are involved in activities, and where facilities are accessible for local initiatives for all ages. Such an approach fosters the well-being of residents.

In this subtheme, we therefore seek the features of the built environment that positively influence people’s health and well-being in organisations not necessarily active in healthcare — either by designing new, healthier spatial qualities or by removing unhealthy ones.