• DOI:10.4415/ANN_16_01_12
• Corpus ID: 33020025

Open building and flexibility in healthcare: strategies for shaping spaces for social aspects.

@article{Capolongo2016OpenBA,
  title={Open building and flexibility in healthcare: strategies for shaping spaces for social aspects.},
  author={Stefano Capolongo and Maddalena Buffoli and Dario Nachiero and Chiara Tognolo and Eleonora Zanchi and Marco Gola},
  journal={Annali dell'Istituto superiore di sanita},
  year={2016},
  volume={52 1},
  pages={
          63-9
        }
}

• S. Capolongo, M. Buffoli, +3 authors M. Gola
• Published 8 March 2016
• Medicine
• Annali dell'Istituto superiore di sanita

INTRODUCTION
The fast development of technology and medicine influences the functioning of healthcare facilities as health promoter for the society, making the flexibility a fundamental requirement. Among the many ways to ensure adaptability, one that allows change without increasing the building's overall size is the Open Building approach.

METHODOLOGY
Starting from the analysis of the State-of-the-Art and many case-studies, eight parameters of evaluation were defined, appraising their relative importance through a weighting system defined with several experts. The resulting evaluation tool establishes in what measure healthcare facilities follow the Open Building principles.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The tool is tested to ten case-studies, chosen for their flexible features, in order to determine his effectiveness and to identify projects' weaknesses and strengths.

CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that many Open Building's principles are already in use but, only through a good design thinking, it will be possible to guarantee architectures for health adaptable for future social challenges.