User - Space Relationship in Emergency Departments

Year 2023, Volume: 11 Issue: 3, 481 - 498, 29.09.2023

Fatih Çağrı Akçay

Abstract

When examining the planning process of healthcare buildings, which comprises phases such as programming, design, implementation, usage and evaluation, it can be observed that changes are sometimes made to projects immediately after their commissioning and occasionally even before they are put into service. This situation can be attributed to the neglect of users such as healthcare personnel, patients and their families during the planning process, leading to unmet requirements or evolving requirements over time. Designers who approach the planning process based on their assumptions or predictions can inevitably lead to the design of spaces that could negatively impact users. Therefore, expecting designers with limited observations and experiences of the process to comprehend what users discern through their experiences within healthcare facilities wouldn't be appropriate. The aim of this study is to identify spatial problems emerging in healthcare buildings through fieldwork, access the sources of these issues within the planning process and thus create a database for designers. Within the scope of the study, the focus has been on emergency departments, which are the busiest and most heavily utilized units within healthcare buildings. Functional, technical and psycho-social requirements were examined through users in two emergency departments located in Ankara. The study material consists of nationally and internationally conducted prior research on the subject, along with data obtained from field studies conducted in the emergency department of Gazi University Hospital and Lokman Hekim Hospital in Ankara. The method employed for the study included observations and examinations in these emergency departments, along with photographic documentation of the existing conditions. The study's outcomes reveal that the sampled environments encompass adverse conditions pertaining to numerous spatial parameters. Accordingly, suggestions have been made to enhance the spatial qualities of existing environments and to provide insights for future designs.

Keywords

architectural design, emergency department design, user requirements

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