In the attempt to improve patient treatment and recovery, researchers focus on applying concepts of hospitality to hospitals. Often these concepts are dominated by hotel-metaphors focusing on host–guest relationships or concierge services. Motivated by a project trying to improve patient treatment and recovery through the architecture framing eating experiences, this article examines, from a theoretical perspective, two less debated concepts relating to hospitality called food design and architectural theatricality. In architectural theory the nineteenth century German architect Gottfried Semper is known for his writings on theatricality, understood as a holistic design approach emphasizing the contextual, cultural, ritual and social meanings rooted in architecture. Relative hereto, the International Food Design Society recently argued, in a similar holistic manner, that the methodology used to provide an aesthetic eating experience includes knowledge on both food and design. Based on a hermeneutic reading of Semper’s theory, our thesis is that this holistic design approach is important when debating concepts of hospitality in hospitals. We use this approach to argue for how ‘food design’ is an overlooked element in hospital eating environments today, and further point at how Semper’s discourse on theatricality can be used to add a more nuanced perspective to future hospitality studies.
The aim of this paper is to move established positions in architectural design by discussing a more refined user perspective. The motivation is threefold. Firstly, fields like environmental psychology and cognitive science for architecture have in recent years brought novel insights on the embodied nature of human spatial experience, and the extensive effects of the built environment on people’s psychosomatic health and behaviour that are not well-captured by existing building standardization systems. Secondly, while the fast growing trends of user-centred and research-based design in architecture have showed that users’ experience is a valuable source of design knowledge, the methods for incorporating this wealth of new insights in the architectural design process are still underdeveloped. Finally, the example of the newly built psychiatric department in Aabenraa, Denmark, whose interior, despite an international architectural award in 2016, had to be re-designed one year after construction due to poor understanding of the users, indicates existing discrepancies in the current approaches to translating research information in user-centred design. To address these issues, we discuss the experiences from a new masters’ course in ‘Architecture, Health, and Well-being’ and propose that user-centred methods like ‘personas’ and ‘scenarios’ used in IT, marketing, and product development also have a potential to develop more in-depth research-informed user perspectives. As well as, to help students envision and strengthen the architectural quality of the programming and building design throughout the architectural design process, by supporting a ‘design empathic’ understanding and immersion in user perspectives.
Objectives: Our aim is to investigate how a new master studies course “Architecture, Health, and Well-being” (AHW) supports development of students’ skills in understanding and assessing health-related research as well as applying research-based knowledge through unfolding of user perspectives in their design projects. Background: With the growing focus on health-related research in Danish design practice, knowing how to translate research findings into research-informed design strategies becomes a preferable, if not (yet) a critical, skill. This calls for architecture educations to reconsider their graduate profiles and teaching curricula, thereby addressing research-to-practice gap. Method: Based on design project hand-ins, we evaluate whether students participating in the AHW course demonstrate greater sensibility toward user experiences and research-based design (RBD) in their master thesis projects, compared to students attending a more traditional architectural tectonic track. Evaluation relates to the use of scientific literature and theoretical frameworks on topics like “healing architecture” and applied user-oriented methods (interviews, personas, demographics). Results: Our explorative analysis indicates that students have the skills to make a detailed user analysis when it comes to well-defined user groups in a highly specialized building (e.g., hospice patients and staff). The extent to which health-related research and user perspectives are applied in the design process seems to be primarily driven by thematic focus of the project (welfare buildings in contrast to housing). Conclusion: Despite the challenges in teaching students to assess and apply academic literature, a RBD paradigm in architectural education can help bridge emerging research knowledge with design skills and professional competencies.
Begrebet ’sygehus’ anvendes i dag om det offentlige rum, hvor syge undersøges og behandles. Men at være syg og indlagt på et sygehus handler ofte ikke kun om at blive rask ved hjælp af medicinsk behandling eller kirurgiske indgreb, men også om velvære og omsorg i form af sygepleje og måltider; om det ’sygdommens rum’, der skabes omkring patientens samlede helbredelse. I denne artikel vil vi argumentere for, at ’sygdommens rum’ i højere grad udbredes til også at omfatte arkitekturen – selve huset, der indrammer det hele– og vi vil, på baggrund af projektet MORE, fokusere på koblingen mellem sygdom, måltider og arkitektur. Metodisk tager vi afsæt i den tyske arkitekt Gottfried Sempers teori omkring arkitekturens grundelementer, der tilbage i midten af det 19. århundrede var med til at danne grundlaget for det, der i dag er den moderne arkitekturteoris definition af ’rummet’ som oplevet fænomen. På baggrund af Sempers teoretiske forståelsesramme og med udgangspunkt i en måltidsbeskrivelse fra renæssancehospitalet Santa Maria Nuova, vil vi give ét eksempel på, hvordan spiserummets arkitektur udgjorde en essentiel del af ’sygdommens rum’ gennem en bevidst iscenesættelse af måltidets ritualer sammen med de lægelige og religiøse handlinger. Omend scenariet forekommer teatralsk i vore dage, så mener vi, at denne historiske beskrivelse kan bidrage til nutidens forståelse af ’sygdommens rum’ og indretningen af hospitalsarkitekturen.Med denne artikel ønsker vi således at argumentere for, at spiserummets arkitektur i højere grad bør være et fokuselement i debatten om fremtidens sygehuse og ikke mindst i forskning relateret til ’sygdommens rum’.
To understand the present and prepare for the future, we must remember our past. - And as indicated with the writings of 19th century English art critic and writer, John Ruskin; material cultural heritage holds an important lesson and plays an ethical role in establishing such a remembrance. With this paper, we discuss examples of implementing storytelling as a creative-explorative teaching method to critically reflect on- and develop the awareness and understanding of material cultural heritage among students from disciplines of Art History, Architecture, and Design. Our examples stem from a workshop held during the International Art Biennale in Venice 2019 by the Erasmus+ interdisciplinary research projectCRAFT.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.