Visual StudiesElissa Stern
DESIGN OF PEDIATRIC HOSPITALS AND THE PERCEPTUAL END EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN
The challenge for designers of pediatric health care facilities is that children’s perceptual, emotional, and cognitive abilities develop over time and design elements may only be perceptually accessible or affectively salient for children of certain ages. At Carrell Children’s Hospital of Vanderbilt University, fanciful animals and naturebased themes create intimate and whimsical spaces, while at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, non-representational geometric motifs evoke a sense of play. How did two inpatient pediatric hospitals arrive at such contrasting design schemes? What, if any, similarities exist between these schemes? How do these design concepts specifically engage the pediatric patient? Is one solution more appropriate in terms of the psychological and emotional development of children? And finally, is one approach more appropriate to a hospital environment than the other?
SECTOR B: Art and Culture of Seeing
ADVISERS: Renata Holod | Sara Jaffee