Flexibility and Prefabrication for future healthcare facilities: the case of Open Room

Objectives The aim of the paper is to apply Open Building approach at the room scale, developing a meta-design solution able to address flexibility through prefabrication in future healthcare environments. Background In recent years, several studies have revealed the increasing rate of hospital obsolescence. This fact reflects the fast pace at which contemporary society, medical and technological knowledge evolve. Several scholars underline that in the next 20 years 80% of medicine will change. Therefore, architectures for health must be resilient and able to adapt to unpredictable changes within different country’s healthcare systems and organizational models. Method Within Alta Scuola Politecnica multidisciplinary projects, Open Building concept, a constant surface approach which consist in the separation of a building in layers: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary systems, has been applied to a room scale (Open Room). The process began with a preliminary analysis of the State-of-the-Art concerning flexibility and prefabrication in different fields and ages. The intersection between functional areas, environmental units and technological matrixes allowed to select several hospital spaces that can be superposed for defining a unique flexible layout. Discussion and results The design is structured into three scales: Primary System, the base building, with the main structural constraints, in which the modules are plugged in; Secondary System, with the prefabricated sub-structures that host the box’s skeleton with all the engineering implants and installations useful for all the types of hospital rooms; Tertiary System, that features both the furniture and all the finishing elements, and allows short term flexibility. Perspectives Open Room is a meta-design research project able to implement Open Building approach at a room scale, to achieve flexibility and adaptability of hospital interior layouts.