Sustainable Hospital Designe 6

Interior areas without access to an outside wall can benefit from the use of task lighting versus overhead fluorescent lights. In a patient unit hallway for example, there's no reason to design for more than 25 foot-candles. A reduced lighting level in corridors not only saves energy but creates a sense of calm and comfort for patients and their families. It also tends to lower voices in the halls and in nurse stations. Another benefit is lower eye strain and reduced fatigue.

Proper use and preservation of water in design can be an integral part of sustainability. Water is a powerful healing element and the symbol of life. Should a facility opt to incorporate water elements, it's critical to pay close attention to design and engineering to minimise water consumption, leakage, maintenance and algae.

Sustainable architecture also involves the use of renewable materials and products with lower Volatile Organic Chemical (VOC) emissions. This idea can also be taken one step further by using recyclable building materials wherever possible, because eventually these materials and their finishes will be replaced. Non-recyclable materials ultimately end up in a landfill.

Durability and ease of maintenance are the two factors that impact sustainability and operational costs of the facility. Spending a little more money on higher-quality and eco-friendly finishes such as terrazao and stone, is often the most cost-effective decision. These types of materials are easy to maintain without chemicals. Typically, they last the lifetime of the building. If the project cannot afford products like terrazao in procedure areas, resilient sheet goods such as linoleum, which have low VOCs and are made from renewable resources, can be substituted. PVCs and vinyl flooring products should be avoided.

Construction site recycling plays a major role in conservation and can generate LEED points. Until recently, many construction sites recycled only a small portion of their scrap material because there was neither a large market for recycling, nor the environmental consciousness to drive the process. That is changing quickly as recycling options for wood and drywall are becoming more available. During the construction of MCR, for example, a local pig farmer purchased the crushed gypsum from wall board scraps to mitigate the effects of animal waste on his land. MCR recycled over 75 per cent of its construction waste as a result of a concerted team effort established at the project's inception. Enforcement by the owner and contractor, JE Dunn, was also critical to the recycling programmes' success.

Design innovation creates additional opportunities for achieving sustainable design goals. With critical input from the owners, it's possible to create an ideal floor plan that maximises flexibility and minimises circulation and wasted space. In hospital design, it is critical to create a circulation pattern to separate public from private zones which complicates the idea of efficiency. But by locating these two zones, or spines back-to-back and placing them at the core of the facility, they can be made shorter and work more effectively, even as the facility grows over time