Designing Spaces that Support Health for the Whole Person: A Sensory Processing Perspective of Healthcare Design in Community-Based Settings

Abstract

There are many barriers to built environments that affect health, well-being, and accessibility. Interdisciplinary models are informing healthcare design that addresses many of these barriers to support health. This research expands on the best practices using sensory processing model to understand how the key principles of design fit into a sensory assessment to gain greater awareness for the effects on health and well-being from the built environment. There is potential to go beyond just meeting the best practices for building and ADA requirements in order to create beautiful aesthetically designed spaces that are universal, engaging and calming, and support all abilities. Understanding how a space can affect the sensory nervous system by causing anxiety, stress, or being overstimulating can inform design and is the focus of this research. The Sensory Design Assessment Tool was developed to understand how best practices of design and human context fit into a sensory processing model for vision, auditory, tactile/touch, movement/space, and oral/olfactory. By using a sensory processing theory for design, along with the concept of creative placemaking and engaging in arts and health, design for community based settings can be universal, beautiful, and supportive for all users within the community.

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