-By Chu Foxlin, AIA, IIDA, LEED AP

Many restaurants and hotels often are as well known for their interior themes as for their food or hospitality. And as of recently, more healthcare organizations have begun adopting themed designs. Fierce competition is one of the market factors fueling this trend, as a memorable interior is one way a hospital can stand out among its peers. At the same time, users—patients, families, and staff—are accustomed to refined and sophisticated designs that they have come to expect from healthcare buildings.

For architects and designers, the thought of “theming” may conjure up terrifying visions of Disney World and Las Vegas. But a thorough understanding of its benefits and hazards, combined with a disciplined process and a well-developed concept, can ameliorate those concerns and yield results that meet complex functional and stringent technical requirements, benefit clients, and delight users.

Why Theme?
Interior theming offers several benefits to healthcare facilities. It can instill unique character and fuse many functions and uses into a cohesive environment. In an otherwise intimidating space, theming can introduce warmth, comfort, and whimsy; offer opportunities for diversion from anxiety and tedium; convey useful knowledge; and establish an effective fundraising platform.

Caution: Danger Ahead
Fears about theming are not without merit, however. Done poorly, theming can embarrass the entire project team. Here are some pitfalls to avoid:

The Hanna-Barbera Effect: An unsophisticated and cartoonish approach.
Solutions:
• Walk a fine line between abstraction and too-literal imitation.
• Consider the “real thing.” Real birch tree chunks may be better than plywood tree cutouts with plastic leaves.
• Create a beautiful space that is memorable to users even if they don’t “get” the theme.

Confused Priorities: Don’t let your theme upstage the architecture.
Solutions:
• Start with an architecturally strong design concept. The theme is the overlay.
• Incorporate the theme into the interior architecture thoroughly, through finishes, floor patterns, and lighting fixtures.
• Integrate the graphic design and signage seamlessly into the walls, ceilings, and floors.

Tunnel Vision: A theme targeted only to a portion of the user population.
Solutions:
• Understand your client’s culture, mission, and goals.
• Be aware of the ages and ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds of all users. A children’s hospital may serve children 0- 18 years, with both long-term and short-term stays. Parents and staff are users, too.
• Be sensitive to cultural taboos.

Esoterica: Don’t be too abstract.
Solutions:
• Look for a theme general enough to cover many topics and accessible to people of different interests, ages, and education levels.
• Make sure your theme can be communicated through a minimum of gestures.

Ideas in Action
The leadership of the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, a 185,000-sq.-ft., 96-bed replacement hospital, set to open in 2010, toured the country’s children’s hospitals and determined that an interior theme would help distinguish them in a city with two similar hospitals. The “Passport to Discovery” theme was generated through intense work sessions with the client. It echoes the research hospital’s mission, “Driven to Discovery,” while remaining broad enough to appeal to the hospital’s diverse population. A “passport” issued to each child encourages “travel” throughout the facility. Each destination features an animal storyteller, chosen for its contribution to health sciences, who shares information about its habitat, other animals, plants, and people from that habitat, and how each helps us understand and cure diseases. The theme is expressed through ceiling and floor patterns, decorative lighting fixtures, and unique finish materials, as well as integrated graphic and art elements including back-lit 3-D habitat murals, graphic photo panels at nurse stations, and art and crafts from different cultures strategically placed throughout the facility. The overall effect is an engaging space suitable to children of all ages that provides layers of knowledge and preserves architectural integrity and sophistication.

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Magee-Women’s Hospital of UPMC in Pittsburgh is one of the country’s first NICUs to provide all private patient rooms. Its staff wanted a uniquely Pittsburgh design and suggested the theme, “Bridge to Health,” referring to the city’s many bridges and to the NICU as a place where sick babies become healthy. This motif is subtly incorporated throughout the unit, beginning with a calming and cheerful color pallete and extending to a water pattern on the floor and a “bridge support” detail at the ceiling. The reception desk and all nurse stations were designed with stainless-steel rod details to recall the image of a cable bridge.

Without doubt, a successful themed hospital interior demands a high level of creativity and self-discipline from interior designers and more intense collaboration among different design trades. But the hard work comes with rewards—beautiful spaces for people at their most vulnerable times.

Chu Foxlin is an associate at Tsoi/Kobus & Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts. TK&A is one of the nation’s leading healthcare design firms and has completed more than 10 million sq. ft. of space for academic medical centers, healthcare systems, and community hospitals. www.tka-architects.com.