"Flexibility": A key concept in Hospital Design

ABSTRACT Hospital buildings which represent one of the crucial components of the healthcare systems are very complex in nature. Healthcare requirements are changing rapidly because of the technological advancements in the field of medicine and diagnostic equipments. Due to future uncertainties of medical & diagnostic equipments in terms of its size, weight, the environment required for its function, adjacencies to the other functional areas, it is often a challenge for the hospital designer. Hospital buildings must be designed in a flexible way so as to address these future uncertainties and be able to adapt changing requirements of its community. With the proper architectural interventions, like suitable structural grid, floor to floor height, proper location of vertical transportation system, introduction of interstitial spaces, location and proper sizing of electrical, mechanical, plumbing and other hospital services, hospital buildings can be made flexible enough to cope with the future uncertainties and to adapt future demands of healthcare functions. The objective of this paper is to analyze the dynamics related to “flexibility in hospital design” with architectural perspectives and with the perspective of end users. This paper will examine the architectural design interventions which can contribute towards improving efficiency of the hospital in its lifecycle and reduce lifecycle cost of the hospital infrastructure.