SUSTAINABLE HOSPITAL DESIGN
Above – Figure 2: An exterior view of the Santa Fe de Bogotá Foundation.
Right – Figure 3: An internal view of the Santa Fe de Bogotá Foundation solarium/greenspace.
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redundancy requirements, makes the hospital an energy-intensive infrastructure – functioning 24 hours per day, seven days a week – with extremely high consumption (over double that of a commercial building).
Ushering in a new era for hospital design For these reasons, the focus of hospital design in the near future will need to be filtered through the strategies of the Next Generation Hospital, in keeping with precise sustainability requirements. Sustainability should be considered as a holistic concept encompassing environmental, social, energy, economic, and organisational issues. In the healthcare sector, as underlined by European Union’s One Health approach, in addition to involving access to care and the digitalisation of processes and risk management, it also relates to the relationship between people and the healthcare environment from an architectural standpoint. It is estimated that if the healthcare sector was a country, it would be the world’s fifth largest polluter. The recent report of the EU Expert Advisory Group of the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR) highlights a strong reciprocity between environmental sustainability and health systems.
On the one hand, healthcare systems –
through their activities, infrastructure, and resource use – contribute to approximately 5.2% of global greenhouse gases, with far-reaching implications for air and water quality, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Meanwhile, the risks posed by climate
change – including heatwave-related illnesses and rising mortality rates, are leading to an ever-increasing burden on healthcare systems, particularly with regards to chronic and non-communicable diseases. Sustainability must therefore be
addressed in the healthcare environment not just from a medical, but also from an architectural standpoint. Through correct sizing of spaces and the use of decarbonisation technologies, hospital design can create wellbeing for people and improve quality of life by contributing to sustainable policies orientated towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the definition of the right ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) profile of the healthcare organisation at large. Meta-design models and frameworks
are thus needed to help decision-makers, policymakers, contracting authorities, and designers, identify the correct sizing, functional, and spatial relationships, as well as the sustainability performance requirements that the hospital of the future must possess. It is also necessary to identify performance monitoring indicators (KPIs) for each thematic area, to shape a new generation of hospitals that are functional, sustainable, digital, safe, inclusive, and deeply embedded in their territory, and able to meet the healthcare needs of the future. The Next Generation Hospital project, developed by the Politecnico di Milano Joint Research Partnership in Healthcare Infrastructures, goes in this direction, and establishes a framework for decision-makers for the use of policies on hospital design. Drawing on the 2023 World Health Organization report titled ‘Hospitals of the future. A technical
brief on re-thinking the architecture of hospitals’, the aim of the Next Generation Hospital project is to develop sustainable healthcare facilities that remain modern and up-to-date throughout their lifecycle. To be classified as ‘Next Generation, a hospital must be located on a site that encourages urban renewal and is well connected to surrounding healthcare facilities, creating a regional health network. This is key to attracting investment, whether active or passive, to accommodate the needs of the hospital and its functions. Such an initiative, in other words, facilitates the creation of new infrastructure, as in the case of the New Karolinska Solna Hospital (see Fig. 1) in Sweden, a facility designed by architects, White Arkitekter. A new tube station was built next to the hospital, to enable sustainable travel to the area. In addition, the use of public arts in the facility not only provided relief for users, but also helped make the space more attractive, and in turn encouraged users to explore the surroundings.3
The location
of medical facilities is, indeed, vital for sustainability, from both an ecological and an economic perspective, as it encourages new investments and the development of infrastructure that helps to reduce carbon footprint.4
Green is the colour of healing Just as location is essential to the Next Generation Hospital, so is the availability of space to create ‘green’ areas, which are key when it comes to sustainability and health. Not only do green spaces contribute to mitigating the urban heat island effect, but they also help absorb the carbon released into the atmosphere.
September 2024 Health Estate Journal 73
Santa Fe de Bogota Foundation / ©Alejandro Arango
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