The Students’ Competition for the Interior Design of Paediatric Department of the City Hospital: Methodology of a Pre-Design Research and Project Describing

Abstract

The following article presents a manner of conducting academic competitions as an example of a cooperation formed between a university and public institutions in the scope of the process of education. The academic competition for the internal design and visual identification of the WSS paediatric ward in Rybnik, carried out in April 2018 at the Faculty of Architecture of the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice came into existence as a result of cooperation between the Specialist Hospital in Rybnik and the Faculty of Architecture at the Silesian University of Silesia. The Competition was organized by employees: the head of the paediatric department, the hospital’s management and the representatives of the Faculty of Architecture under the leadership of Assoc.Prof. Dr. Eng. Arch. Dorota Winnicka-Jasłowska (Vice Dean for Student Affairs at the Faculty of Architecture, Silesian University of Technology - an initiator of the competition and the main organizer). The design task was to devise a conception for the interior as well as prepare visual information for the paediatric department which must be subject to renovation. Actions connected with the organization of the competition, described in the article, as well as the presentation of the final effects are an example of diversified initiatives: on the one hand, they are the result of a cooperation struck between the university and the social surrounding (in this case the health care facility), on the other hand, they constitute an exchange of experiences between students who major in architecture and interior design and the participants coming from the designed space – employees of the paediatric department. Assumptions of the competition gave character to the actions completed by the students, with extra importance attached to skills in team work as well as acquisition of knowledge on user preferences as well as their functional abilities. In the case of designs made for users such as children, this is of key importance in the making of a user friendly space.