As our understanding of healing environments evolves, it's time we bring the same creativity, empathy, and human-centered design found in children's hospitals into every corner of healthcare.

Image: In this opinion piece, Rod Pindar discusses how we can draw inspiration for good design in children’s hospitals.

We’ve come a long way in understanding how the built environment affects our wellbeing. From physical comfort to emotional and psychological health, the spaces we inhabit have a profound impact on how we feel, think, and heal.

Nowhere is this more important — or more visible — than in healthcare settings. Hospitals are places of vulnerability and urgency, where patients, families, and staff alike often experience high levels of stress, anxiety, and fatigue. In these environments, design isn’t just decoration — it’s part of the treatment.

A foundational principle in healthcare design is establishing a connection to nature. Access to fresh air, natural light, greenery, and views of the outdoors has been shown to reduce pain, lower stress, and shorten recovery times. Contemporary health facilities incorporate landscaped courtyards, therapeutic gardens, and nature-filled atriums to support healing in subtle but powerful ways.

Biophilic design builds on these principles, integrating natural materials, textures, and patterns into the architecture itself. It often includes art programs that span visual art, music, literature, and even performance — all of which can contribute to a more human-centered, comforting experience.

In recent years, there’s also been growing recognition of the importance of sound in healthcare settings. Quiet, restful spaces and a reduction in alarm fatigue can dramatically improve comfort and reduce stress. And as patients and carers become more involved in their care, there’s increasing value in providing choice and control — from lighting and temperature to privacy and ventilation.

So, with all this knowledge, research, and design expertise at our fingertips — why do so many healthcare facilities still look and feel so clinical, sterile, and uninspired?

The usual answers are well-worn: cost and infection control. Construction costs remain high, and infection prevention demands durable, easy-to-clean surfaces.

Operational constraints, maintenance, and efficiency often dominate decision-making, especially in high-pressure healthcare systems. But these limitations don’t explain everything. Because in some parts of healthcare, we do see inspiring, innovative, human-focused design — and we see it most in paediatric hospitals.

In children's facilities, the user experience isn’t just a fun add-on — it’s essential. Kids don’t separate their emotions from their environments; they respond to what they see, hear, and feel. To provide effective care, these spaces must be comforting, engaging, even joyful. And so, the brief and the design responds to these needs.

Take the Queensland Children’s Hospital, where a dramatic inside-out tree trunk becomes a centrepiece of imagination and wonder. Or the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, where visitors walk through a vibrant hospital street, past a two-storey fish tank and a meerkat enclosure — all just steps from core clinical areas.

These principles are also core to our designs for the paediatric spaces currently under construction at Liverpool Hospital in NSW, which incorporate play and exploration in addition to a dramatic sculptural waiting space to be unveiled when Stage 2 opens in 2027.

In these places, the physical environment is part of the care team. Art, light, nature, and play are not afterthoughts — they’re integrated into the healing process. And they prove that we can design healthcare spaces that are functional, safe, and uplifting.

So why stop with children? The truth is, adults don’t lose their sensitivity to surroundings — we just become used to tolerating them. But that doesn’t mean we should. Adults also heal better in beautiful, calming environments that embrace the natural environment.

Families and carers also deserve comfort. Staff deserve spaces that support rather than deplete them. If we can design for delight, wonder, and humanity in children’s hospitals, we can — and should — do it everywhere. The design priorities that make paediatric spaces exceptional shouldn’t be reserved for children alone.

The challenge is to elevate wellbeing and user experience amid all the competing priorities — to let human needs be the driver, not just the constraint. If we want healthcare environments that truly support healing, maybe it’s time to follow the lead of the ones we design for our kids.

Images: Fitzpatrick + Partners are developing healing environments that place the human experience at the centre of the process / supplied

Architecture News & Editorial Desk

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