Hotel Design Should Influence Hospital Architecture

Image: Hotel Aire de Bardenas in Spain | ooh_food | Flickr

YOUR CUSTOMIZED HOTEL ROOM

I came upon an interesting post that got me thinking about the future of hotel design — and hospital architecture…

Chris Brogan, a social media expert, describes his ideas in this post: Ideas for Hotels and Hospitality. He merges his knowledge of social networking with making efficient use of time during his hotel stays — his ideas seem to revolve around productivity, comfort and individual preferences.

I’m especially intrigued by the notion of putting your specific hotel preferences into a “system”. That way, your hotel has your customized room ready and waiting to suit your needs. Brogan does a nice job of listing such preferential hotel amenities, but how can we take these ideas a step further — as they relate to architecture?

HOSPITALS HAVE A LOT TO LEARN

Did you know that hotels are sometimes also used for post-operative recovery? It seems that staying in a hotel gives patients certain personalized comforts that a hospital does not. (Notice that I didn’t say cannot.)

Hospital designers can actually learn a lot from hotel designers. Hotels offer a better ambiance for different moods, designated spaces for visitors/family to stay and a wide selection of room services to choose from — and these are just a few of the hotel amenities that hospitals can incorporate.

Trends in hospital design today should lean toward the better integration of nature, color and information management. It is my hope that as hotels evolve to better satisfy their clientele, hospital designers will be paying attention.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Just imagine what can happen when you begin to apply certain interactive features found in innovative architectural design. Hospitals can really improve…for that matter, so can hotels.

(1) Brogan, Chris. Ideas for Hotels and Hospitality. ChrisBrogan.com. August 10, 2009.

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