Exploring Design for Healthy Aging in Community: A Case Study Approach in the Chinese Context.

Due to traditional family values, older individuals tend to prefer aging within the community and home rather than in nursing homes. According to the World Report on Ageing and Health, the aged-care environment significantly influences healthy aging. Recently, there has been a growing trend to integrate various functions and resources into community centers for older citizens in the Chinese context.

Integrated Climate Change Mitigation and Public Health Protection Strategies: The Case of the City of Bologna, Italy.

Introduction: The ongoing process of global warming, driven by the escalating concentration of greenhouse gases generated by human activities, especially in urban areas, significantly impacts public health. Local authorities play an important role in health promotion and disease prevention, and some aim to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. There is a consistent action underway to reach this goal, hence the need for mapping and implementing effective strategies and regulations.

Universal Design in University Environments. Are the New Buildings More Inclusive? A Tool for Equal Design Assessment.

This study explores the application of Universal Design (UD) principles to university environments, aiming to improve the experiences of students and staff by fostering inclusivity in educational and social spaces. The research began with a literature review and employed the 'Design for All A.U.

Association between area-level walkability and glycated haemoglobin: a Portuguese population-based study.

Diabetes poses a substantial disease burden, prompting preventive interventions. Physical inactivity, a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes, can potentially be mitigated by enhancing area-level walkability. Despite this, limited population-based studies have investigated the link between walkability and objective diabetes measures.

Benchmarking Relevance for Hospital Design and Planning: An International Web-Based Survey.

Objective: The study aims to investigate what design practitioners and healthcare facility managers deem as important benchmarking metrics worldwide, investigating country differences in benchmarking usage and which metrics are prioritized.

Background: Benchmarking is a regular practice in the healthcare sector, both for clinical and managerial aspects to compare, measure, and improve standardized processes. However, limited knowledge is available about benchmarking procedures in hospital planning, design, and construction.

New Requirements for post-COVID-19 Hospital Inpatient Wards: Evidence, Design Recommendations and Assessment Tools.

Background: The evolution of hospital infrastructures highlights the need of its physical space to respond to new technological, societal and epidemiological transformations such as those following the COVID-19 pandemic experience. Although the new emerged needs of user-centeredness, comfort and wellbeing within specific functional areas, there is still a lack of measurable indications for addressing these challenges in-patient wards.

Study Design: The objective of this study is therefore to provide specific guidelines for the design of the in-patient ward, through measurable criteria and indicators based on evidence from the scientific literature, and to develop an assessment tool for its evaluation.

Rethinking the Healthcare Facilities: The Role of the Buffer Space.

Objectives: A working group conducted a survey on the use of the principle of buffer space (BS), which in case of emergencies, could benefit healthcare settings. The aim of the preliminary investigation is to define new research lines in hospitals' functional design.

Background: The global experience of the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted challenges faced by hospitals when responding promptly to emergencies, including spatial reorganization and suspension of ordinary medical activities for ensuring adequate management of the emergency surge of patients.

Bridging therapeutic landscapes to architecture. International experience-based design strategies for healthcare infrastructures.

Background And Aim: in Italy, many cases studies of therapeutic green spaces are built into healthcare infrastructures, but only some of these follow the principles of healing gardens. Scientific literature and international case studies offer many contributions of evidence relating to how therapeutic green spaces can support traditional treatments. The paper analyze the relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces and healing gardens' features; the main research questions were: "Can we synthetize experience-based design strategies for therapeutic green spaces and healing gardens? How can we prioritize the most relevant ones for the healthcare infrastructures?"

Methods: Research Method is divided into three different steps: 1st case studies' selection; 2nd case studies' analysis, and 3rd quali-quantitative comparative matrix.

The meta-projects of the new community health centers, community hospitals and local operative centers for the Italian country.

Background And Aim: COVID-19 highlighted significant criticalities of the Italian National Healthcare System (NHS) and recently the Italian Government approved the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) to relaunch its economy and at the same time to promote health, sustainability and digital innovation. Specifically, M6C1 (Mission 6 Component 1) wants to introduce Community Health Centers (CHCs), Community Hospitals (CHs) and Local Operative Centers (LOCs) to strength territorial healthcare services. Starting from the Italian Ministerial Decree n.

Evaluation of stakeholder opinion about Long Term Care Facilities for People with Dementia perceived quality: a web-based survey in the Italian context.

Background And Aim: Italy is a country where the percentage of elderly population is very high (23% over 65). The aim of the investigation is to bring out which aspects of the spaces intended to accommodate elderly People with Dementia pathologies should be most present and potentially interested in becoming cornerstones of a new model of Long-Term Care facilities (LTC).

Methods: This research uses a case studies analysis followed by a web based survey as methodological tools.

Built environment impact on people with dementia (PwD) health and well-being outcomes: a systematic review of the literature.

Background And Aim: The number of People with Dementia (PwD) is rising worldwide and represents a complex figure because of the changes in the cognitive sphere, altering perceptions of the Built Environment (BE). Even though the role of the built environment in the health and well-being of people it's nowadays well known, few studies analyze and evaluate the impact of specific Architectural Features. To this end, this contribution provides a systematic review that will underline the impacts of BE on the Health and Well-being of PwD and set a matrix of the relationship with measurable outcomes.

Application of an evaluation tool for mega-hospital site sustainability. Assessment of public private partnership large sized healthcare infrastructures in European context.

Background And Aim: Healthcare facilities are large and complex infrastructures designed to respond to a growing need of sanitary services in specialized environments to serve an increasing population number while containing costs. New financial and design models emerged for large sized Hospital -Facilities (Mega-hospitals) but their site sustainability is questioned.

Methods: The paper focuses on a comparison -between European region case studies of Public Private Partnership (PPP) Mega-Hospitals.

Green space in hospital built environment. A literature review about therapeutic gardens in acute care healthcare settings before Covid-19.

Background and aim Hospital facilities are one of the most stressful environments and there is evidence that during Covid-19 having outdoor and green spaces helped medical staff and nurses to decrease the stress and anxiety level. Nevertheless, knowledge about the type of green space is limited. The aim of the study is to systematize the existing scientific literature on the topic in a specific time period.

Covid-19 emergency management and preparedness in cross-border territories. Collection of experiences, needs and public health strategies in the framework of interreg GESTI.S.CO. project.

Background And Aim: The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted management difficulties in neighboring territories. The aim of the paper is to report the needs of different stakeholders during, before and after Covid-19 emergency with specific regard to challenges faced by public administrators in confined territories.

Methods: In the framework of Interreg GESTI.

Design for all A.U.D.I.T. (Assessment Universal Design & Inclusion Tool). A tool to evaluate physical, sensory-cognitive and social quality in healthcare facilities.

Background And Aim: Universal Design (UD) is the design of environments equally accessible and usable to the wider range of people regardless their abilities or disabilities. Various studies highlight the lack of evaluation tools to support decision makers to enhance inclusive environments, especially complex constructions with various users as healthcare facilities. The research proposes a tool to evaluate the quality of building according to UD through a new set of objective indicators with a performance-based approach.

Health and well-being key performance indicators in corporate sustainability disclosure. A review of sustainability reports from a sample of major European companies.

Background And Aim: Health and Well-Being (HWB) measurement represents a key issue for companies in all sectors and a core element of social sustainability, according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite its importance for companies and in sustainability reporting, the topic has not been investigated yet from a cross-sectoral perspective. Therefore, this research aims to assess if health and well-being are disclosed in sustainability reports of the largest European companies.

Lessons from the first wave of COVID-19 in Italy: A collection of design strategies to face pandemic situations in healthcare facilities.

Objectives: This study aims to provide metadesign indications for the improvement of healthcare facilities, emphasizing the role of spatial design in the management of epidemic health emergencies.

Study Design: A parallel mixed-method study including literature reviews, survey creation, and survey distribution was performed.

Methods: Data were collected between August and October 2020 capturing information related to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, utilizing a review of existing literature, a comparison of existing hospital planning guidelines and assessment tools, and distribution of a survey to analyze design changes within selected Italian hospitals.

Can Homes Affect Well-Being? A Scoping Review among Housing Conditions, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Mental Health Outcomes.

The purpose of the scoping review is to explore the relationship between housing conditions, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), and mental health implications on human well-being. In fact, time spent at home increased due to the recent COVID-19 lockdown period, and social-sanitary emergencies are expected to grow due to the urbanization phenomenon. Thus, the role of the physical environment in which we live, study, and work, has become of crucial importance, as the literature has recently highlighted.

Designing Hospitals Through the Lens of Universal Design. An Evaluation Tool to Enhance Inclusive Healthcare Facilities.

Various studies highlight a gap on reliable methods to measure the quality of projects and environments in terms of Universal Design (UD) and Design for All (DfA). In particular, healthcare facilities need decision support systems to improve the well-being of as many users as possible through a systematic approach. The present research proposes an evaluation tool to support designers and decision makers in the adoption of UD to develop healthcare facilities suitable for a wide range of users.

Healthcare Facilities and Dementia Development of a Framework to Assess Design Quality.

In recent years, thanks to advances in medicine and the role of prevention, life expectancy has experienced rapid growth (from 77.6 to 81.3 years), resulting in an increase in Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and years lived with disability.

Communities, Sport, Inclusion. Strategies for Parish Complexes Social Reactivation Through Sport Practice Promotion.

The following contribution presents some findings deriving from the research project "Sport is Society" by Politecnico di Milano. The research reflects on the built heritage and its ability to be accessible and usable for different users with different needs in its structures and offer of services, focusing on sports activities and spaces. The study refers to collective ecclesiastical structures in the contemporary city.

Effect of Housing Quality on the Mental Health of University Students during the COVID-19 Lockdown.

COVID-19 outbreak imposed rapid and severe public policies that consistently impacted the lifestyle habits and mental health of the general population. Despite vaccination, lockdown restrictions are still considered as potential measures to contrast COVID-19 variants spread in several countries. Recent studies have highlighted the impacts of lockdowns on the population's mental health; however, the role of the indoor housing environment where people spent most of their time has rarely been considered.

Lessons from the first wave of COVID-19 in Italy: A collection of design strategies to face pandemic situations in healthcare facilities.

Objectives: This study aims to provide metadesign indications for the improvement of healthcare facilities, emphasizing the role of spatial design in the management of epidemic health emergencies.

Study Design: A parallel mixed-method study including literature reviews, survey creation, and survey distribution was performed.

Methods: Data were collected between August and October 2020 capturing information related to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, utilizing a review of existing literature, a comparison of existing hospital planning guidelines and assessment tools, and distribution of a survey to analyze design changes within selected Italian hospitals.