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Access Type
Open Access
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Architecture
Degree Type
Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
Year Degree Awarded
2012
Month Degree Awarded
May
Keywords
Children’s hospital, Hospital, Cancer, Organ Transplant, Micro Town, Patient, Visual connection, Pittsfield, Isolation
Abstract
As the greatest considerations in health-care design have traditionally been functional —hygiene, efficiency, and flexibility for changing technology— hospitals have evolved to become dehumanizing spaces. In this thesis two specific groups of chronically ill children who have among the longest inpatient stays are studied: cancer and organ transplant patients. Being under immunosuppressive drugs, these children are physically vulnerable thus are kept completely isolated. These long stays and isolation can be very depressing for them.
This thesis undertakes the challenge of designing a fully isolated space that doesn’t feel like one or in other words “a micro-town within a bubble”. The author intends to achieve this goal through strong visual connections, natural lighting, and creative space planning.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/2820250
First Advisor
Kathleen R. Lugosch
Second Advisor
Sigrid Miller Pollin
Included in
Architectural Engineering Commons, Cognition and Perception Commons, Interior Architecture Commons, Movement and Mind-Body Therapies Commons, Other Mental and Social Health Commons, Therapeutics Commons