Evidence-based design: The role of inpatient typology in creating healing environment, hospitals in Erbil city as a case study

This paper discusses the potential role of inpatient layout in creating a healing environment for its users, whether there is an existing relationship between inpatient typology and healing environment. The study employs an evidence-based design method adopting a qualitative-quantitative approach as a multiple research methodology. Quantitatively, an EBD questionnaire-ASPECT was distributed to the users to assess the healing environment within specific cases; syntactic maps were used to assess the configuration of inpatient layouts. Qualitatively, a modified EBD-AEDET tool was used as a checklist evaluation. Four different inpatient typologies (H-shape, T-shape, U-shape, L-shape) were chosen to represent four hospitals in Erbil city. Results showed that there is a clear effect of the inpatient typology on the healing environment of patients. Research outputs provide a useful database for healthcare designers in their future designs, especially for inpatient units due to their influential role in creating a healthy and safe healing environment for patients.