The evaluation of awareness and implementation of biophilic design patterns in healthcare environments: Case study the Pars Hospital in Iran

Today, people spend most of their time in artificial built environments which surrounded by drywall, concrete, wood, and steel. Moreover, four-fifths of people in developed countries reside and/or work in dense urban cities. Actually, man-made environments weaken the opportunity for humans to connect with their natural environment. These environments are filled with ecological and sensory deprivation resulting in a weakened human-nature connection (Kellert, 2012). Specifically, healthcare structures emphasizes the elimination of ailments with disregard for the fundamental aspects of human health- they are "designed to cure, not to heal". Bedridden patients face drab wall, bland ceiling tiles, minimal daylight, few views of nature, and rare ability to go outside. This disconnect from nature that can intensify stress, pain, anxiety, and depression, costing the hospital more hours, staff and resources. However, this connectedness with nature could be strengthened by the design industry, as design possesses the ability to promote this relationship through built environment solutions that encourage interdependency between people and natural elements. In other words, it is a responsibility of many people especially architects and interior designer to provide all possibilities to create healthy, productive and therapeutic spaces. Thus, this research aim to revitalize the human relationship with nature and strives to close the existing gap that continues to expand nowadays as a result of modernity. By applying biophilic design, is an approach to bridge this gap. Biophilic design is an innovative and rapidly growing method of designing the spaces within which we live, work, learn, and heal and aims to remedy this modern disconnect with nature and fulfill the longing that humans have to be immersed in the natural environment. According to biologist Edward O. Wilson, humans are biologically interconnected with nature physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Due to nature's remarkable influence on human psychology, biophilia-based design plays a vital role in healthcare delivery for hospitals and clinics which are high-stress environments for patients, visitors and families, and healthcare professionals alike. Integrating nature into healthcare facilities has abundant benefits on stress reduction, cognitive performance, emotion and mood preference on patients and healthcare givers (Heerwagen & Orians, 2011). In this thesis, it has been tried to investigates how nature affects human health and well-being and also aimed at exploring ways in which biophilic design patterns have been integrated into the design to be retrofitted in existing and new healthcare facilities through a case study approach. The sequence of paper explained what the guidelines of biophilic design are through defining and working with each pattern, inspecting the design considerations and examples of each pattern and further by illustrating how it impacts human health. Thereafter, suitable example named Khoo Teck Puat hospital which is the first and most designed with biophilic design were analysed through WELL building standards to help identify design opportunities that address familiar and chronic health challenges often caused or exacerbated by our built environment. Finally, the case study which selected in Iran was visited and to achieve results, a mixed method of the qualitative and quantitative methods has been used. First, in addition to library research and observation, a questionnaire have been carried out for collecting the data. The survey had been done with seventu-seven people. The question tried to meet the answer the study 's issue about acknowledgement and use of biophilic design elements in architectural practices that specialise in healthcare design. Therefore, the online survey was sent to all by email with using Qualtrics software and was designed to garner an insight into evaluating the current level of the awareness on biophilic design, involving Iran architecture professionals and seek to identify what level of experience architects have of implementing biophilic design patterns in healthcare projects. The final part, introducing Iran healthcare system and their hospitals built form and then, create an analysis table to analyize the one of the newest and modern hospitals of Iran which achieve the award from World Architecture Festival 2017. It is a question whether actually they implement biophilic design in their modern and contemporary hospital project or not. Second, the presence of the biophilic design patterns through WELL building standards was assessed in the hospital named Pars hopital in Rasht, Iran and the table of guidelines and strategies of BD was initally used as a simple pass or fail criterion and this is the tool that aided in the selection of the area to be analysed. The main findings of this thesis have been: a knowledge deficit exists among Iran architects on biophilic design; no direct references to biophilic design and WELL building standards exist in either local or national planning policy and clients do not envision biophilic design as being important or necessary in their developments due to the cost and client which was identified a significant obstacles to implement biophilic design.