Healing Environment for “Place & People”

We craft a unique healing environment for each healthcare project — tailored to meet the needs of specific patient populations and to celebrate the richness of their contexts. We strive to achieve a state of well-being for all. These are places for hope and healing.

Healthcare spaces are planned to support the different, optional workflows of clinical programs. Space planning with “Intuitive Navigation” in mind — to ease patient anxieties and staff burnout — is the key to a successful healing environment. Effective integration of interior finishes enhances the holistic experience and is critical to promoting infection prevention and patient safety.

Immersing patients, visitors and caregivers in the beauty of the natural world through natural daylight is fundamental to our interior design and planning. It provides all occupants with a circadian rhythm whose therapeutic benefits cannot be ignored. Public waiting rooms, staff lounges and staff workrooms are carefully calibrated to ensure daylight and views are available throughout our facilities. Appropriate use of transparency fosters a sense of tranquility, harmony and openness. “Embedded Nature” celebrates the connection with the natural world and provides a positive, supportive healthcare environment by maximizing access to the outdoors and gardens.

The uniqueness of each healing environment is rooted in its site — providing a sense of place that belongs to the local community.

The “Context-Driven Design Concept” echoes the surroundings and informs the expression of the environment. In our approach, each healing environment has its own unique personality, shaped by the uniqueness of its site context. The design concept serves as a guiding principle for the development of design languages, featured elements and the selection of interior finishes. It drafts the narrative of the patient experience.

Penn State Health Children’s Hospital

Penn State Health Children’s Hospital is situated in Hershey, nestled in a lush, rolling landscape. “Healing Through Nature” was an interior theme generated to feature specific design elements: a waterfall-like exterior expression, a treehouse welcoming station, a four-season-forest learning wall and a café field with a cloud-like ceiling. Interior spaces carefully choreograph how patients and families move through and experience the hospital. A meandering public pathway connects public amenities, café, learning wall, meditation room, family resources and conference center to the outdoor gardens. On inpatient levels, corridors are conceived as a river with an open collaboration station as a riverine island. A main tributary curves toward a gathering space with a waterfall-like, cascading glass wall overlooking the campus and rolling hills beyond.

Boston Children’s Hospital Needham

The site of Boston Children’s Hospital Needham Ambulatory Surgical Center is situated between the Charles River and Route 128. The design optimizes clinical efficiency while providing a unique healing environment for children — encouraging patients to engage with the building’s playful moments. The concept of “Healing in Movement” carries from the exterior expression into the interior experience. Public sitting zones are found along a river-like curvilinear spine, and a large water-bubble seating bench marks a special moment anchored by interactive art and café. The integration of art and environmental graphics throughout the center invites patients and visitors to discover movement in nature: the movement of water, people, light, wind and sky.

White Plains Hospital

White Plains balances a bustling urban environment with lush suburban parks. The new inpatient building at White Plains Hospital is a major expansion — and a transformation of the campus that creates a new identity for the hospital. “Elemental Nouveau” was developed as a design theme to refine the urban sophistication of the existing legacy hospital and to celebrate its connection back to nature. The concept leads to visually captivating spaces through sinuous lines, asymmetry and curvilinear forms that are dynamic and flow throughout, from public spaces to clinical units. The hospital welcomes fresh perspectives that support the essence of the original campus, transcending time and trends.

PAYETTE Healthcare brings strong expertise in medical space planning — providing effective program validations and organizations — and an equal passion for generating healthcare environments that each truly belong to a unique “Place & People.”