Patients making place. A photography-based intervention about appropriation of hospital spaces
(2015) ARCH14 In Aalto University Publication Series ART+DESIGN+ARCHITECTURE 6. p.25-42- Abstract
- Hospitalised patients are faced with a brute reorientation of their normal spatial needs and
preferences and forced to adjust spatially to a new environment. Patients start to re-arrange
their own situation according to personal needs and the site-specific circumstances. It is a
re-arrangement that includes furniture, private objects and spatial positioning, but also the
adjustment to the presence and needs of the staff and other patients. What types of spatial
and aesthetical preferences and actions emerge in this alignment with the hospital culture
and how can preferences and everyday spatial production by patients be investigated? Here,
a methodological approach is suggested where patients look upon their... (More) - Hospitalised patients are faced with a brute reorientation of their normal spatial needs and
preferences and forced to adjust spatially to a new environment. Patients start to re-arrange
their own situation according to personal needs and the site-specific circumstances. It is a
re-arrangement that includes furniture, private objects and spatial positioning, but also the
adjustment to the presence and needs of the staff and other patients. What types of spatial
and aesthetical preferences and actions emerge in this alignment with the hospital culture
and how can preferences and everyday spatial production by patients be investigated? Here,
a methodological approach is suggested where patients look upon their stay at the hospital
by discussing photos that they have produced themselves while hospitalised and answers to
a set of questions they have written on image cards produced by the researchers in order
to stimulate discussion. The investigation was carried out in 2012 at Helsingborg Hospital
in Sweden. It shows that patients are primarily concerned with spatial ordering within the
hospital environment and less with decorative aesthetic aspects. The study also shows that
the understanding of patients’ daily occupation with shared spaces, negotiable spaces and
delegated spaces would gain from further investigation of spatial appropriation and its relation
to the existential necessity of spatial vagueness. In relation to this, we suggest that architectural
consultation and environmental research could take into account a more varied range of
views of space within the hospital environment, apart from already established categories or
functions. It could be done, we suggest, practically as well as theoretically, by acknowledging
certain qualities of vagueness in the continual everyday production of hospital space. By
allowing meetings and negotiation between otherwise separate, contradictory or completely
unheard opinions, this may in the end have a positive effect on future architectural outcomes. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/f923d8c8-ed33-4947-8aea-7db26160a809
- author
- Sandin, Gunnar LU and Björgvinsson, Erling
- organization
- publishing date
- 2015
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- hospital architecture, appropriation, vague space
- host publication
- ARCH14 International Conference on Research on Health Care Architecture
- series title
- Aalto University Publication Series ART+DESIGN+ARCHITECTURE
- volume
- 6
- edition
- 2015
- pages
- 25 - 42
- publisher
- Aalto University Publication
- conference name
- ARCH14
- conference dates
- 2014-11-13 - 2014-11-14
- ISBN
- 978-952-60-6201-3
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- f923d8c8-ed33-4947-8aea-7db26160a809
- alternative location
- http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-60-6201-3
- date added to LUP
- 2017-03-15 11:33:22
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 21:30:40
@inproceedings{f923d8c8-ed33-4947-8aea-7db26160a809,
abstract = {{Hospitalised patients are faced with a brute reorientation of their normal spatial needs and<br/>preferences and forced to adjust spatially to a new environment. Patients start to re-arrange<br/>their own situation according to personal needs and the site-specific circumstances. It is a<br/>re-arrangement that includes furniture, private objects and spatial positioning, but also the<br/>adjustment to the presence and needs of the staff and other patients. What types of spatial<br/>and aesthetical preferences and actions emerge in this alignment with the hospital culture<br/>and how can preferences and everyday spatial production by patients be investigated? Here,<br/>a methodological approach is suggested where patients look upon their stay at the hospital<br/>by discussing photos that they have produced themselves while hospitalised and answers to<br/>a set of questions they have written on image cards produced by the researchers in order<br/>to stimulate discussion. The investigation was carried out in 2012 at Helsingborg Hospital<br/>in Sweden. It shows that patients are primarily concerned with spatial ordering within the<br/>hospital environment and less with decorative aesthetic aspects. The study also shows that<br/>the understanding of patients’ daily occupation with shared spaces, negotiable spaces and<br/>delegated spaces would gain from further investigation of spatial appropriation and its relation<br/>to the existential necessity of spatial vagueness. In relation to this, we suggest that architectural<br/>consultation and environmental research could take into account a more varied range of<br/>views of space within the hospital environment, apart from already established categories or<br/>functions. It could be done, we suggest, practically as well as theoretically, by acknowledging<br/>certain qualities of vagueness in the continual everyday production of hospital space. By<br/>allowing meetings and negotiation between otherwise separate, contradictory or completely<br/>unheard opinions, this may in the end have a positive effect on future architectural outcomes.}},
author = {{Sandin, Gunnar and Björgvinsson, Erling}},
booktitle = {{ARCH14 International Conference on Research on Health Care Architecture}},
isbn = {{978-952-60-6201-3}},
keywords = {{hospital architecture; appropriation; vague space}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{25--42}},
publisher = {{Aalto University Publication}},
series = {{Aalto University Publication Series ART+DESIGN+ARCHITECTURE}},
title = {{Patients making place. A photography-based intervention about appropriation of hospital spaces}},
url = {{http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-60-6201-3}},
volume = {{6}},
year = {{2015}},
}