Humanisation of spaces
Design, Setup, and Product Supply
Veneto
Padua
Healing through exploration, learning through play
The new “Salus Pueri” Children’s Hospital in Padua It represents a place to continue growing and learning. An eight-storey building covering 19,000 square metres and with 155 beds, it houses twenty-five specialist paediatric units, an emergency department, radiology and a six-room operating theatre.
The novelty is not only in the architectural dimension. Alongside the building project, the Humanisation Project was created, donated by the Salus Pueri – Crescere la Vita Foundation to the Padua Hospital-University and coordinated by DU IT srl together with Professors Paolo Felli and Maria Chiara Torricelli.
Its goal was to create a hospital that is not only a place of care, but also a welcoming, inclusive space, able to accompany children and their families on a journey that combines treatment with a focus on the human aspect. Its goal was to create a hospital that is not only a place of care, but also a welcoming, inclusive space, capable of accompanying children and their families on a journey that combines medicine with play, learning with discovery, relationships and beauty.
The wayfinding journey: a trip around the world in the eight floors of paediatrics
The story that runs through the hospital is that of a journey through the Earth’s biomes. Each floor is dedicated to a natural environment – from the Mediterranean scrub to the tundra – which comes to life through colours, graphics, sounds, tactile elements and interactive installations. Moving between the wards therefore means passing through ever-changing scenarios, encountering animals, illustrated characters and scientific curiosities.
The animals surprise patients by appearing in the middle of rooms, popping out of doors, materialising as if by magic from the ceiling lights, jumping on fire-fighting equipment, clinging to handrails or leaning on bumper strips, blending in with the architecture and all the elements that make up and characterise complex hospital spaces. In addition to their artistic, aesthetic and restorative value, the illustrations are an inclusive orientation tool based on communication through images, which promotes understanding regardless of physical and mental conditions, age or gender, particularly in distribution spaces, making every movement an opportunity for wonder.
The illustrations are also a strategy to get patients moving and out of their rooms, promoting the healing process and the creation of relationships with their peers. The variety of colours and shapes promotes a sense of surprise and curiosity, which encourages patients to interact and explore their surroundings to discover new things, rather than simply walking through them to reach their destination. This encourages them to become active, moving away from the passivity and isolation that can result from hospitalisation.
Through stairways and paths, a narrative unfolds through scenes of art and nature, a sort of dynamic “exhibition” that encourages children and young people to explore their surroundings. The illustrations and content of the various comics were created in collaboration with the
creating a sensory learning experience. This is the first time that educational, play and entertainment activities have been created in a hospital, not only in specific areas such as the playroom, games rooms or school classrooms, but throughout the entire hospital, representing an inclusive system of wayfinding, but also of relationships and growth.
In addition to sight and touch, the orientation project also involves hearing, transforming the routes into a sound experience. From the entrance, the interactive wall allows visitors to listen to the characteristic sounds of biomes — such as birdsong, lions roaring or the wind in the tundra — which help children recognise the reference floor. The same sounds, repeated on the hospital wards and in the waiting rooms, are interwoven with specially composed music to create soundscapes that not only reinforce orientation but also improve acoustic comfort, reducing anxiety and background noise, with particular benefits for patients with sensory sensitivities such as those with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
The welcome: playing and learning as well as caring
The welcome in paediatric hospital environments is fundamental, particularly in the entrance hall, where children and young people need to feel that they are in a positive, familiar and non-threatening place. Soft, pastel colours, natural materials such as wood, games, sensory and interactive technologies, art and illustrations create a playful, engaging and easily understandable environment.
The curved reception desk, visible from the entrance, makes users feel welcome and is also accessible to wheelchair users and small children. Interactive wooden games are integrated under the countertop, featuring numbers and orientation icons, which are also present on the upper floors, to distract and familiarise children with the hospital’s graphics. The wood and nature-themed decoration, with stylised tree trunks and branches, reinforce the feeling of a natural and regenerating environment.
The real innovation is the interactive wall located just inside the entrance, designed to stimulate the senses and make the hospital experience positive and non-traumatic. The wall reduces stress and anxiety, promoting positive memories even for patients with long-term stays or recurring visits, encouraging play, art, colour and a sense of normality and humanity. The wall is organised into eight columns, each dedicated to a floor and a terrestrial biome, with interactive elements distributed in four rows:
- the top row reproduces the graphics recognising the planes and different terrestrial biomes;
- the second row features large rotating balls that show the floor number in the colours of the palette on one side and the reference icon on the other;
- The third row features other rotating spheres that have models of flora and fauna related to terrestrial biomes on one side and an enlarged photo on the other.
- The bottom row features new rotating spheres containing different minerals for each biome, which can be touched as well as viewed, conveying different sensations. On the opposite side of the sphere is a microscope photo of a cross-section of the same mineral.
- Between the last two rows, coloured buttons can be pressed to play sounds related to the different biomes.
Waiting rooms: games and positive distractions
Play is not confined to dedicated spaces, but spreads throughout the hospital as an integral part of therapy. Waiting rooms are therefore designed to be playful and interactive. According to the theories of
The perimeter walls of the waiting rooms have been transformed as part of the humanisation project, becoming organic and curved and housing niches with seating, the reception desk and a display case with naturalistic dioramas created by the Museum of Nature and Man. The seats in the alcoves are soft, enveloping and illuminated from above, while those in front of the counter are modular and can be transformed into play areas for children. Books and games are stored under the benches, and the walls feature drawings and messages from patients. Next to the waiting rooms, a door leads to the space for caregivers, designed for the whole family, with a refreshment area (fridge, microwave, water), areas for rest, work or private phone calls.
The playrooms and schools in the hospital, located on every floor, offer modular furnishings, soft spaces and digital environments that adapt to the different ages of the children. Rooms have been designed for teenagers to allow them moments of independence, socialising and digital entertainment. Green terraces overlooking the outside complete this experience: real therapeutic gardens with accessible planters, tactile paths and games that bring young patients back into contact with nature, reactivating their senses and restoring a sense of normality.
A model for the future
The new Paediatric Hospital in Padua demonstrates how healthcare design can go beyond functionality and become a cultural and social act. Thanks to the collaboration between architects, designers, psychologists, doctors, museums and families, a sensory and educational ecosystem has been created that accompanies treatment with moments of play, discovery and beauty.
It is not just a place where illness is fought, but an environment where life continues to flow: made up of relationships, learning and small everyday gestures. A model that looks to the future, capable of transforming the experience of illness into a journey of growth and discovery.
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