Person-Centered Health Care Design

Disease, injury, or congenital disorders result in an inability to perform activities of daily living as effectively as others. Most of these activities take place within and are dependent upon the designed environment. This book presents the specialized area of person-centered health care design, which focuses on a person's design needs because of one or more health conditions and requires foundational knowledge pertaining to infection control, bio-physiology, neuroscience, and basic biomechanics.

Whether the designer has engaged in person- or condition-centered design, this book examines the causes that bring about health conditions, such as autoimmune disorders, chronic lung disease, muscular dystrophy, and neurological disorders, and the effects these have on a person's quality of life. Over forty various health conditions are discussed in relation to assorted building typologies?schools, group homes, rehabilitation and habilitation centers, and more?to identify design solutions for modifying each environment to best accommodate and support a person?s needs.

Dak Kopec encourages readers to think critically and deductively about numerous health conditions and how to best design for them. This book provides students and practitioners a foundational framework that supports the promotion of health, safety, and welfare as they pertain to a person's physiological, psychological, and sociological well-being.

"Environmental design approaches promoting human-centric solutions engender spaces to improve quality of life. Bridging medical and environmental design, Person-Centered Health Care Design introduces a specialty where designers develop knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and disease pathology vis-a-vis designed environments. The book?s coverage of design?s intersections with health offers a significant foundation across various scales. The book presents crosscutting knowledge to designers focused on preventing health conditions, aiding in rehabilitation, or assisting those with altered capacities due to health conditions, and suggests processes for those expanding their professional skills." Dr. Lynne M. Dearborn, AIA, Professor of Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"Person-Centered Health Care Design attends to the necessary point that people vary and healthcare conditions are diverse and that wellness involves physical, psychological, emotional health. It follows that healthcare environment solutions must acknowledge and strategically nurture patients where they are in their healing or health management process. Now more than ever, thoughtful, attendant environments are a prescription for people just as drug and therapy regimens are. Person-Centered Health Care Design importantly links medical conditions with built environment interventions that can lend important support to people in a time of great need." Jill Pable, Ph.D., FIDEC, NCIDQ, WELL AP