The importance of the hospital buildings to the sustainability of the built environment

Abstract

The project of a hospital environment requires a number of concerns related to the satisfaction and well being of the working team, the patient and the administrators. This kind of project has a strong social responsibility and impact on the city. Due to various design require-ments, it turns out that these buildings are not designed and operated in a sustainable way. This is because there is no effective method to support the design teams to consciously introduce such measures. Consequently they don t know which are the best practices to follow and build-ing managers are not aware of the measures that must be adopted for efficient building operation. Based on this context it is important to study the best practices of a sustainable hospital design that should be taken into account in the design phase (to support the decision to adopt solutions that contribute to the building sustainability) and lifetime operation (supporting users and managers for the operation and equipment maintenance at an high level of efficiency). This paper will discuss the importance of the hospital buildings for the sustainable construction and will present some indicators that should be maximized when designing, operating or maintaining a sustainable hospital.