Nightingale speaks about healthcare design excellence in China

03 June 2010

Mike Nightingale was one of eight speakers at an international healthcare symposium based in Beijing.

The Union Friendship Exchange Centre of Architecture, based in Beijing, China, organised a two day symposium to stimulate the exchange of contemporary healthcare design ideas on 29th and 30th May 2010. The conference, comes at a pivotal point in the history of healthcare architecture in China, which is about to experience the dramatic effects of the enormous, Government backed, inward investment into health and education infrastructure, triggered by the recent world recession. One example of this is the commitment to build 800 teaching hospitals across China over the next 10 years.

The talk included analysis of Nightingale Associates schemes

Nightingale Founder, Mike Nightingale, was one of the eight international speakers invited to share the rostrum with Dr. Huang Xi Qui, the recognised leading Chinese expert in hospital design. Other speakers were from Germany, Finland, the United States, Japan and Singapore. It proved to be a very stimulating and informative seminar with the twin challenges of climate change and the effects of rapidly evolving medical science featuring strongly in the talks.

Mike also spoke about landmark historical hospital designs in the UK

Mike’s address concentrated on the issues concerning the future proofing of healthcare buildings, starting with a short history of proven British examples of flexible design right back from the hospitals inspired by Florence Nightingale in the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.

How a Nightingale Ward might work fitted with BedPods

He then talked about the differences between the centralised ‘super hospital’ approach exemplified by the Southern General in Glasgow, and the de-centralised approach as expressed by the Design for Life work the Cardiff Office are doing for Gwent in South Wales. He finished up with a section on sustainability, featuring Porthmadog Community Hospital and emphasising the importance of embracing the widest possible approach to sustainability covering economic and social issues as well as environmental design. The talk ended full circle with an illustration of a range of Nightingale’s new BedPods, fitted skilfully by Nightingale 3D Manager, Matt Clementson, into a Nightingale ward.