About the Sensing Spaces of Healthcare project

The Sensing Spaces of Healthcare project explores the sensory past, present and future of the NHS hospital.

The Sensing Spaces of Healthcare project explores the sensory past, present and future of the NHS hospital. Using a range of interdisciplinary methods, from archival research to site visits and participatory arts, the project explores the senses in hospitals. It is funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship [MR/S033793/1 and MR/X022447/1]. To find out more about the project and the project team, visit hospitalsenses.co.uk

About our activities for designing healthcare spaces

This site hosts one of the project's activities. This activity invites people to reimagine and rethink the hospital environment. It is based upon our patient and public involvement work and our creative research with NHS staff, patients, and service users. We have developed an online version of this activity that is more accessible, for use by people working in hospital arts and design.

You may want to use this activity to think creatively about the hospital. For instance, it could be used as an engagement activity, or it may be used when designing new spaces or exploring changes to an existing hospital.

This activity works particularly well as a facilitated group activity, but it is also designed to be a low-resource and engaging activity for individuals, for example in beds or waiting rooms.

Try our online mapping activity

For full details of how to work with the mapping activity, please see 'Improving Sensory Environments: A Practical Guide to Person-Centred Healthcare Settings'. This guide contains a broader selection of activities, including our creative activities alongside a range of other design methods. It is the output of a multi-disciplinary working group of academics, practitioners, healthcare staff and architects. This guide offers a range of tools for meaningful consultation, and is not limited to hospital settings.

Acknowledgments

Credits to Camille Aubrey for illustrations and Dan Weill photography for photographs.