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Flexible and adaptable hospitals – Australian case studies

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conference contribution
posted on 2017-07-24, 14:00 authored by J. Carthey, Vivien ChowVivien Chow
In 2009, a literature review uncovered different international approaches to achieving flexible and adaptable health facilities and concluded by recommending further research focussing on Australian hospitals to identify key site issues, design features, and major upgrades that have influenced longer term responses to changing modes of service delivery and other demands in local settings. Responding to these recommendations, this second stage research was conducted by reviewing further relevant literature and project documentation for five case studies, visiting and documenting key adaptability features of each case study facility and consulting with health facility personnel where available. Findings include that longer-term flexibility is assisted by: generous site area, lower rise hospital buildings along a horizontal circulation spine (‗hospital street‘), surplus building services capacity facilitating easy expansion/alteration, and a consistent workable planning grid supporting a range of standardised room sizes. Future investigation should consider the impact of high land values on site utilisation especially in terms of future proofing multi-storey buildings, and how to assist health clients decide when ‗enough‘ flexibility has been provided.

Funding

This work was supported by Health Infrastructure NSW.

History

School

  • Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering

Published in

Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC) 4th Annual International Conference 2011: Global health infrastructure – challenges for the next decade. Delivering innovation, demonstrating the benefits

Pages

160 - 175 (16)

Citation

CARTHEY, J. and CHOW, V.W., 2011. Flexible and adaptable hospitals – Australian case studies. IN: Global health infrastructure – challenges for the next decade. Delivering innovation, demonstrating the benefits. Conference Proceedings of the 4th Annual Conference of the Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC 11) Manchester, UK, 26-28th Sept., pp. 160-175.

Publisher

© the Authors

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2011

Notes

This is a conference paper.

Language

  • en

Location

Manchester, UK

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