ICU: Leaving Space for Humanity Amidst the Machines

Intensive care units are filled with instruments, alarms, and constant 24-hour lighting, often causing patients to lose their sense of day and night. What design can do: ensure every bed has natural light and a window where the passage of time can be seen; change the lighting to a system that can adjust color temperature and brightness according to day and night; move alarms to the nursing station instead of the bedside; and create a small space between instruments for family members to sit down and hold hands. The ceiling remains the most important surface. Materials should minimize reflection while being cleanable. Photograph from the bedside, contrasting the density of instruments with that small human space. Avoid: no windows, constant lighting, bedside alarms, family members only standing.

Translated from Chinese by AI.

加護病房充滿儀器、警報聲與二十四小時不變的照明,病人常因此喪失日夜的感覺。設計能做的:讓每一床都有自然光與看得見時間流逝的窗、把照明改為可依日夜調整色溫與亮度的系統、把警報改為集中在護理站而非床邊、以及在儀器之間留出一小塊給家屬坐下並握住手的位置。天花仍然是最重要的表面。材質在可清潔的前提下盡量降低反光。從床側拍攝,儀器的密度與那一小塊人的空間形成對比。避免:無窗、照明恆定不變、警報聲在床邊、家屬只能站著。