How We Can Build Hospitals Of The Future

Over the past few decades, we have witnessed rapid urbanisation and emergence of new construction technologies.

- Ravideep Singh

While green buildings and energy-efficient technologies promise to reduce carbon footprint and create a healthier built environment, we are beginning to see the irony of what building so called 'sustainable' infrastructure entails, practically. On the other side of the spectrum, the onset of the pandemic has brought forth the functional inadequacies of our healthcare infrastructure and imposed an urgency to ramp up and build high-quality infrastructure swiftly.

Today, as we find ourselves amidst a health and climate crisis, the question arises - to build or not to build?

This year, on World Health Day, WHO is drawing global attention to the actions toward keeping our planet and people healthy. As we recognize the interconnectedness between the planet and our health, it has become critical for us to explore long-term, sustainable building solutions. As a result, architects are now focused on designing medical facilities that are not only sustainable but also pandemic and future-proof.

Sustainability and healthcare

Lately, adaptively repurposing and reusing existing built structures has been a successful endeavour for several industrial and commercial projects, significantly cutting down construction costs and time. Making its way into the healthcare industry,' adaptive reuse', even though was deemed a sceptical concept initially, is gradually gaining meaningful acceptance. A hospital's design specificities often pose a challenge. However, with careful consideration and meticulous planning, this approach offers financial, environmental, and communal benefits. While an adaptive repurposed hospital can undoubtedly provide high operational efficiency, a few fundamental design decisions can offer adequate resilience and flexibility during times like Covid-19.