Let there be air.

by Doug Earle, CEO, West Park Healthcare Centre Foundation

Sometimes, the answer to get us to a better tomorrow can be found by looking to the past.

In 1868, English architect Henry Currey, did just that by borrowing the Pavilion Plan System for hospitals which had originated in France a century earlier, for his own design of St. Thomas's Hospital in London.

The Pavilion System was a design response to the need to improve ventilation and reduce the spread of indoor airborne viruses. The essential prerequisites were: sufficient space to provide good light, coupled with a?free?circulation of fresh air. Simple, yet highly effective.

Among other enthusiasts for the Pavilion style, was Florence Nightingale who witnessed first-hand astronomically high death rates in the hospital at Scutari during the Crimean War (1854–6).

In her Hospital Notes (1863), she wrote: “Artificial ventilation may be necessary, but it never can compensate for the want of an open window.”?

Today, after three years battling a deadly coronavirus which has wreaked havoc around the world, we are all desperate for some fresh air.

With humans spending 90 per cent of our time indoors, our individual health is directly tied to the health of our buildings. Yet we seldom consider the healing ability of architecture.

In the hospital boom that followed World War II, the Pavilion concept for hospitals was replaced by buildings that prioritized technological efficiency over human comfort and healing.

Sadly, and at a tremendous human and financial cost, we forgot about the healing power of nature, how nature improves health outcomes and supports the psychological and emotional well-being of patients and their families.

Opening wide a window of possibilities with some fresh thinking, West Park Healthcare Centre in Toronto envisions a future where nature plays a vital role in nurturing care, helping our patients to heal.

West Park has imagined a hospital that not just houses people recovering from an illness, but actually makes a positive contribution to the health and well-being of its occupants including staff and family members, the community in which it operates, and the environment.

Building on its century-long legacy, West Park has pushed the boundaries of design innovation where it hadn’t existed before. Originally founded as a sanitarium for the treatment of tuberculosis, the new hospital building, when completed in 2023 and the campus development by 2025, will extend beyond the walls, connecting indoor and outdoor therapeutic environments that enable staff to seamlessly deliver exemplary care.

Key features of the new hospital building will include:

·??a HVAC system that ensures only 100% fresh air is pumped in from the outdoors, eliminating the need for re-circulated air and removing potential transmission of airborne pathogens.

·??operable windows in the patient rooms.

·??outdoor therapy courtyards including one with multi-surface paths, sensory and meditation gardens and a network of walking and exercise trails that will create a sustainable ecosystem connecting nature into the building design.

·??a range of public amenities including a spiritual care centre, gallery, piano lounge, fireplace lounge, and a large auditorium.

·??designated outdoor garden spaces to match each of its indoor public and therapeutic spaces.

·??outdoor terraces to allow patients on each of the upper levels ready access to nature and the scenic views of the outside.

West Park has gone beyond the traditional diagnosis and treatment approach to medicine to one that includes addressing the biopsychosocial needs of patients, with an emphasis on creating an environment with access to the outdoors which promotes health, healing, and recovery.

West Park listened to what patients really needed and wanted.

It conducted extensive research including 74 interviews, the results of which helped inform the design process. The research was recently featured as one of the Top 10 Picks of the Year at the International Healthcare Design Conference and cited in “Hospital outdoor spaces: User experience and implications for design .”

The integration of nature into the new West Park hospital will create a powerful new vision for healthcare architecture. Where nature really does nurture.

Inspired by the past, West Park’s vision holds the potential to redefine how health care is delivered for future generations to come.

(Stay tuned for more updates as we approach November 2023 and the opening of the new West Park hospital building, and continue the hospital campus transformation until 2025.)