Analysing and Evaluating the Design Process of Children's Hospital through a Participatory Design Approach Based on Hart Ladder (Case Study: Royal Manchester Children's Hospital)

Despite understanding the impact of the built environment on children, little attention has been paid to the design of children’s hospital environments, taking into account children’s opinions. Their voices are usually not heard properly because they are interpreted by adults. Often, studies about children with their needs have relied on talking to parents. However, to create a sense of belonging in children, they need to see their share in the design. The purpose of this article is to examine the process of identifying children’s preferences and how to apply them during the hospital design process based on the different levels of the Hart participation ladder. The eight steps of participation from the bottom to the top are: 1) Manipulation 2) Decoration 3) Ttokenism  4) Assigned but informed 5) consulted and informed 6) Adult-initiated, share decision with young people 7) Young people-initiated and directed And 8) Young people-initiated, share decisin with adult. This paper discusses children’s participation in the design process of the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and attempts to examine experiences related to children’s participation in the design process and project par-ticipation activities. This research is a qualitative combination and includes an interpretive approach and the methods of data collection are based on documentary studies, field surveys and interviews. And provide a strategic prescription to be addressed. The findings of the present study, which are based on the interpretation of interviews with the design team and people who were present in the design process, in the first step includes reviewing and evaluating the participation process during the design. In the second step, it offers suggestions by formulating the advantages and disadvantages. The results show that participation in a design process provides valuable opportunities to express children’s views and ensures that user requirements are available at all stages of the process and are not eliminated by gradual changes to design solutions.