Sensory Design in Healthcare Welcome Spaces for Healthy Ageing

Primary Care Services in Italy are evolving to promote the spread of social-health care facilities (e.g., CdC - Casa della Comunità/House of the Community). Many gaps have been detected in the field of designing for CdC, especially regarding designing welcome and waiting spaces. Sensory Design was identified as a suitable approach to design comfortable and customisable environments for the different CdC's users. Sensory environments aim at favouring mental health, rehabilitation and comfort in healthcare facilities, reducing stress during the waiting time and before or during the medical intervention as a positive distraction. Scientific literature is still not expanded in this field. The contribution aims at studying the application of Sensory Design in an innovative context such as the CdC environment to support healthy and active ageing. This design approach favours the stimulation of primary senses and self-regulated emotions to generate positive feelings, reduce stress, promote relaxation, physical activity and recovery. According to a Theoretical Framework, best practices have been analysed to identify spatial and environmental sensory characters to be applied in designing CdC's welcome and waiting spaces. The authors have identified four main categories of sensory features for CdC: i) innovative Spatial Models: designing the building according to a multisensory approach to stimulate and welcome people in an inclusive way; diffusing sensory equipment in public spaces (e.g., corridors, waiting spaces, etc.); designing sensory atrium or waiting spaces; providing snoezelen rooms as dedicated and specific rooms for sensory recovery; making environments adaptable trough portable sensory equipment; ii) Relaxing features to promote comfort and psychological support; iii) Physical activity promotion, according to the idea of healthy and active ageing; iv) the integration of sensory solutions by the use of digital technology.