A new book chapter published in Building to Heal:New Architecture for Hospitals

Gath-Morad, M. (2023). A virtual cognitive walkthrough approach to support architectural design pedagogy of integrated hospital environments. In T. C. Vollmer, A. Lepik, & L. Luksch (Eds.), Building to heal: New architecture for hospitals (p. 92). ArchiTangle GmbH. https://www.liag.nl/assets/main/pdf/cases/building-to-heal_new-architecture-for-hospitals.pdf

Building to Heal: New Architecture for Hospitals examines the problems and major challenges faced by healthcare architecture today and presents innovative models and solutions. Through critical, scientifically based discourse, a variety of authors examine the functioning of the healthcare system in relation to hospital architecture, identifying what hospitals are missing and how architecture can contribute to the healing process of patients.

The book chapter titled "A Virtual Cognitive Walkthrough Approach to Support Architectural Design Pedagogy of Integrated Hospital Environments" discusses the intricate design of hospitals, which requires balancing various trade-offs to meet the diverse needs and preferences of all stakeholders involved in the care delivery process. To tackle this challenge, an experiment was conducted where students analyzed the experience of typical hospital users across a range of hospital typologies using a combined cognitive walkthrough method with virtual reality. Subsequently, they analyzed the trade-offs emerging from these environments. The goal of the experiment was to test how this approach can help design students make informed decisions about hospital environments. This chapter reports on the experiment and provides insights into the challenges and opportunities of integrating cognitive science in architectural design pedagogy.

Editors: Tanja C. Vollmer, Andres Lepik, and Lisa Luksch.