An Adaptable and Instructive Architectural Design Proposal for the Fight Against COVID-19 Pandemic in Existing Hospitals.

Abstract

It is aimed to make the spatial structure of an existing hospital that gave health service against COVID-19 during pandemic suitable to COVID-19 treatment in this article. The architectural arrangements aimed at preventing the contamination and spread of COVID-19 in this hospital are expressed in the study by offering practical revisions that reorganize the spaces and patient traffic. A state hospital in Turkey is chosen as an example, and the revisions intended for the reorganization of its existing spaces are made considering both the pandemic and post-pandemic period. Starting from the fact that the design parameters related with the spaces needed for the struggle against COVID-19 are common, it is hypothesized that the proposed arrangements be adaptable to many hospitals in different levels. The existing physical situation and problems of the hospital during COVID-19 pandemic are determined by communicating with hospital administration and making survey study with the working staff; thereafter, the feasible architectural revisions and new circulation schemes are indicated in the article through the tables and revised architectural projects of the hospital. It is hypothetically expressed with these arrangements that the proposed design interventions are instructive and give clues for the solution of architectural design based problems that increase the risk of contamination of COVID-19 in hospitals. The highlighting of decreasing the risk of the contamination of disease in a hospital with simple architectural revisions and expressing the contribution it makes to the struggle against pandemic is the most important conclusion of this study.