2011, Vol.17, No.1

JOURNAL OF THE KOREA INSTITUTE OF HEALTHCARE ARCHITECTURE 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.46

pISSN : 2733-8649 / eISSN : 2733-8657
https://journal.kci.go.kr/ikiha

This paper is intended to suggest some reference materials for future specialization of university education about healthcare facility design in Korea, by reviewing the degree systems and curriculum of 5 universities where architecture departments have specialized program for healthcare facility design in USA. Research method includes the navigation of related homepages, the e-mail contacts with the professors in charge, and the analysis of collected materials. Some conclusions can be summarized as following : Degrees of the specialized programs under concentration or track system are awarded as the same title as master program in the department of Architecture. Specialized education programs can be largely classified by concentration/track systems(Clemson University, University of Kansas and Arizona State University) which are operated independently in general and certificate system(Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University) which adds some healthcare related courses to general master program in the department of Architecture. As distinctive curriculum from 5 Universities, Clemson University which offers almost courses related to healthcare facility design, University of Kansas which provides internships(6 credits each) for summer term & fall semester of 2nd year, and Texas Tech University where certificate program is co-operated by architecture and nursing department can be mentioned. In order to pursuit the specialization of university education about healthcare facility design in the department of Architecture, it would be desirable to proceed it after setting the direction such as concentration, track or certificate system according to the various circumstances & conditions of the department concerned.

Nowadays, a proportion of healthcare service for the elderly has been improved due to the factors, such as a prolonged life expectancy, a growth of aging population and a change of member of family. For these factors, it is necessary for the elderly to receive treatment for multidisciplinary diseases, associated with psychological care of sociological concept. It is quite difficult in an acute-care hospital to accommodate the elderly patient because of the fact that an acute-care hospital is required to maintain a high level of medical care and technical standard. That is why specialized medical service is needed for the elderly. In the case of Germany, they are at the stage of the change from large scale facilities to specialized facilities applying the integrated concept. This paper addresses the medical environmental factor and distinction of medical facilities for the elderly through survey and analysis relating to all change in Germany. Therefore, it aims to suggest a fundamental resource for architectural planning and network of medical facilities for the elderly.

Recently, with the advent of high risk infectious agent such as the Ebola virus, SARS, special research facilities dealing with such dangerous pathogenic are drawing attention gradually. Especially, this kind of facilities can be called BL4(Biosafety Level 4) facility. At the moment, Korean government is going to construct BL4 institute in order to handle efficiently such kind of pathogen. However, there are no proper design guidelines for BL4 facility. This paper proposes circulation system of BL4 facility on the basis of analysis of existing BL4 guidelines of Canada, and Korean BL3 facilities. The outcomes of this study are as follows. At first, functional areas of BL4 facilities have been divided into three categories according to the hazard level ; dangerous area, transitional area, and ordinary area. Secondly, circulation system of BL4 facility has been explored as a form of diagram according to the circulating subjects. These include human, laboratory animals, hazardous pathogen, equipments and cloth. This study has some limitations in that it lacks empirical evidences and concrete SOPs(Standard Operating Procedure). Despite of some weaknesses, it is expected to give some preliminary guidelines for the design of circulation system in BL4 facilities.