[Humanization: social representations of a children's hospital].

This study aims at investigating the architectural and built environment aspects involved in the humanizing process in a pediatric hospital and its influence to the recovering of the hospitalized child. Based on the Social Representation Theory, a structural analysis was carried out, using free association of words and a semi-structured questionnaire for data collection. The study was carried out in a public hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the results presented refer to the representations produced by 75 people accompanying hospitalized child.