Abstract

Some researchers have addressed what home means in architectural terms to human beings, and some others have investigated comfort and homeyness in relation to patients. Also, many studies, and on top of them Pallasmaa’s theory about the architecture of senses, have shown the importance of considering all human five senses in the design of a built environment and its positive effect on people’s sense of well-being. However, there has been no scientific evidence supporting the relationship between human senses and designing homely healthcare spaces which can result in the development of healing environments. So, this research investigates the comfort and homely design factors for patient rooms and their relationship to the five human senses in order to create multisensorial experiences. Also, this project aims to raise awareness among healthcare designers, caregivers, and patients in terms of the importance and role of considering all human senses in order to create comfortable and homely atmospheres in hospital rooms.
The current study is analytical and theoretical using qualitative research. Discourse analysis is conducted to find and evaluate the design recommendations based on sensorial qualities. Through the research-creation process, the current images of a cancer ward room in Montreal are analyzed. The final creation of this project is a webpage to reveal sensorial design recommendations as an information mechanism. The research-creation project has a didactic approach and tries to teach different design recommendations for a patient room and their sensorial aspects by interacting with the analyzed hospital room images using a website.