Beyond Sterility: Crafting Well-being with Glass Mosaic in Healthcare Design

Healthcare providers are well aware that positive imagery, especially with art, aids the healing process as much as biophilic design does. However, the two are not used in conjunction enough in healthcare design and architecture. Why do biophilic art and color psychology work for humans in need of healing? Furthermore, we all desire low-footprint building design, especially in large-scale places of healing. So, how can we use the beauty of natural materials to create lasting, positive art that is also hygienic, low-waste, and low-maintenance? Post-COVID, our healthcare industry has learned that environmental design is the difference between sanity or not when under extreme pressure. How can we do better for healthcare facility design?

Wikipedia defines biophilic design as, "...a concept used within the building industry to increase occupant connectivity to the natural environment through the use of direct nature, indirect nature, and space and place conditions. Used at both the building and city scale, it is argued that this idea has health, environmental, and economic benefits for building occupants and urban environments, with few drawbacks. Although its name was coined in recent history, indicators of biophilic design have been seen in architecture from as far back as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.''

As Cavemen, we used our human ingenuity to create connectivity to the natural environment by telling stories through art. By painting and drawing art onto our cave walls, ceilings, and right up to the GFC, as decorative finishes onto doors, windows, pillars, pools, fences, splashbacks, and floors, etc., we expressed our culture.

Through art, we created an immediate sense of home, well-being, and prosperity!

Nothing Spartan until Bauhaus; and even that aesthetic had style.

Today, we have allowed ourselves to go down the Spartan route into minimalism, greys, and hard surfaces that we are now trying to add warm; but many of us have forgotten how. The color psychology of Grey is helpful to deal with trauma and move on; however, it is not a hue with which to live in. Because the negative aspect of the color grey is a fear of aging and illness. Therefore, why would Aged Care and healthcare providers want an abundance of grey in their environments?

In contrast, when healthcare providers add art to biophilic design, and not just one or the other, they express nature and culture to immediately create a sense of well-being where patients can relax and heal.

Secondly, why art and not photography? In contrast to the commercial-looking replication of nature that is photography, art is human expression. Art also adds style to the environment. Over 16 years of tailoring art to residential, corporate, and Aged Care spaces, this author discovered that people want style and nature over abstraction and color over monochromatic. In fact, studies show that we are hardwired to seek beauty and nature.

Let's go deeper. Can healthcare providers have biophilic design and art, without the high maintenance, damage to substrates and high cost of plant-up walls throughout their facilities? Further, is there a way to be biophilic, artful, low-maintenance, anti-bacterial, and allergy-free all at once?

The famous 20th-century architect Frank Lloyd Wright said, “The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own, we have no soul of our own civilization.” He built according to his vision of what the future would be. He saw the need for homes to be more fluid, more open, more livable, and less restrained. He foresaw the need to build from the earth and for the earth. His architecture both documented a time in history and yet managed to push the envelope with his modern philosophical approach to the future of building."

So, thirdly, by advancing our age-old beliefs in the importance of art in architecture, art provides the solution to both designing for well-being and designing out construction waste. After all, our historical buildings, which were artful, are now heritage-listed due to their beauty and instant sense of well-being.

But, again, what sort of art is architectural, low-maintenance, anti-bacterial, and allergy-free?

Natural imagery re-designed as art, made from natural, kiln-fired glass as mosaic built into, or added to surfaces, creates biophilic expressions of culture and corporate identity. Impervious glass mosaic on walls, floors, and ceilings is still visible today in ancient Roman times as found in London (above picture).

Similarly, mosaic in Pompeii survived Mt Vesuvius's AD79 volcanic eruption. Mosaic creates low-footprint design and reduces the need to constantly renovate our homes- now on average, a fast 20-year cycle, 60K, 6-month long process.

Lasting and easy to clean, mosaic made from glass is suited to create awe for places of relaxation and water therapy - like pools, or bring warmth into oversized hospital foyers. Mosaic from glass is hypoallergenic being non-porous and therefore can be sterilized, as excellent, low-footprint alternatives to rugs, paints, and carpets, as creative healthcare design.

Glass mosaic as floor feature Tile Rugs are non-slip, non-trip, child, pet, and elder-friendly, moppable alternatives to rugs, bringing healthcaprovidesre designers ways to zone spaces without any hazards.

Lastly, glass mosaic as art with biophilic imagery of plants and wildlife can also feature the power of color psychology.

In terms of color psychology and biophilic design, it is green, the fourth of the chakra colors that align with the heart, which is the most loving color on the planet. Green's positive aspects relate to compassion, love, and growth, earth, and humanity, and giving freely of themselves and their time.

From a health perspective, green resonates with calmness, openness, and freedom. The color green offers healthcare providers a way to harmonize the body, soul, and spirit and encourage us to spread our wings and go for new adventures.

In conclusion, the big picture. Art in the form of glass mosaic, featuring the color green with natural subject matter, creates biophilic art that delivers healthcare brands an enduring way to build and decorate for both low maintenance and well-being.

Subscribe with us for Unique Art Finishes that deliver Better Health for Aged Care and Health Care

For more information contact Sharron Tancred, Tailored Artworks

61 7 3491 6400 | www.tailoredartworks.com.au/commercial-murals-healthcare/