Investigation of Factors Affecting the Formation of the Sense of Place in the Children's Hospital Room in 2022 (Case Study: Imam Hossein Children’s Hospital, Isfahan, Iran)

The sense of place is one of the criteria for evaluating qualified environments in architecture. It is a positive experience of place, formed based on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral interaction between people and place. Children's hospital evokes negative feelings such as fear, stress, and distress in the child; reaching a sense of place to generate a positive emotional relationship between a child and the environment can not only neutralize these negative effects, but can speed up the healing process as well. The objective of this study was to find the factors affecting the formation of the sense of place in children's hospitalization space.

This qualitative study was conducted by thematic analysis method with Braun & Clarke approach. The statistical population of the study was children between 7 to12 years old, hospitalized in Imam Hossein Hospital in Isfahan, Iran. The sample size was carefully selected according to the purpose of the study to achieve theoretical saturation. In order to grasp their idea of a qualified hospital room, 20 semi-structured interviews with targeted children's parents were conducted by thematic analysis method and then analyzed by ATLAS.ti software.

According to the parents’ perceptions and ideas, the quality of hospital room could be influenced by five main themes including items and features located in room, providing safety and physical health, positive distractions, a sense of security and mental peace, and providing environmental comfort and 22 subthemes. According to the parents, a high-quality hospital room is a place that can take the child's attention away from the painful environment of the hospital and provide the ground for imagination and creating positive feelings in him, a place whose physical components provide both the child's physical health and environmental comfort, and also the basis for the child's sense of peace and psychological security.

According to the outcomes of the research, the themes obtained from the opinions of parents provide the three physical, emotional, and behavioral dimensions, effective in the sense of place formation model. By using these themes in the design of the inpatient space, the physical environment will be able to influence the child's behavior and perception by providing the physical and mental needs of the child leading to the establishment of the child's emotional relationship with the place, and ultimately the formation of a sense of place.