A framework for supporting humanistic design in health-care facility environments.

Humanistic design is the creation of environments for the human being that focus on feelings in order to fulfill the mental, emotional and spiritual needs due to their effect in reducing tension and supporting reinforcement, stimulation and response. The need to humanize health care buildings has emerged clearly in the past decades. In addition, the principle of focusing on the patient in the design of health care buildings has had the greatest impact on the quality of the health system, as the patient's experience has become of utmost importance in the whole health care system.
Since the early 1960s, environmental psychology has been found to interplay between architecture and psychology. Environmental conditions act as a direct reason behind stressful reactions and emotions such as anxiety, fear, anger and emotions affecting all aspects of performance, spirit, and physical health. In addition to environmental conditions, social environment has been incorporated into environmental psychology due to its effect in supporting human soul.
This study aims to focus on the patient and his experience within the hospital and health care facilities in light of the psychological impact, rather than the economic aspect, as the patient suffers from many psychological problems in the hospital. The research follows the inductive approach, as it studies and analyzes the environments of different health care buildings that take into account the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of the patient and support humanistic design in terms of the user’s pleasures, needs, and care.
The research contributes to developing a framework that enhances the humanistic design in hospitals that includes different environments to create mind-blowing, inspiring and sense-stimulating architecture and open the way for many studies to probe into the environments of health care facilities.