Nowadays, buildings are not always what they seem to be. Cemeteries look like parks, air terminals look like malls, and some hospitals look like hotels. It’s an attempt to change our perception of staid and scary institutions to make them look –well, less staid and scary and more human! Designers have added the human touch to institution buildings to make them appear more humane. This trend humanizes the facilities, which is a good thing. Some years back, entering a typical hospital felt cold and clinical. It brought on thoughts of cattle getting ready for the slaughter. And sometimes, it even had the same effect on the attitude of the personnel and staff working there. When my wife gave birth to my eldest daughter, I distinctly remember the first question the admitting personnel asked us, “Kanino ka?” Of course, what she meant was “Who is your doctor?” The welcome seemed so cold, just like the atmosphere of the place and it didn’t have anything to do with air conditioning.
But now, through humanizing design, these institutions are beginning to look more inviting. Surely, even the attitude of the personnel is affected, something you could not attribute all to HR motivation seminars. The institution has been transformed into an ideal workplace, not only for the patients and visitors, but for the staff as well. On this thought, they would do well to apply the same concept to city halls, penal colonies, wet markets, and those dreary places where the wheels of commerce and business grind interminably. But of course, the best buildings to humanize would be the schools, that place where we hope to encourage our youth to be the best they can be, to be more human!
Many times, proper planning and design help us respect our surroundings. Filipinos, as we know, are a very clean lot. Enter a typical home and you hesitate to wear your shoes inside. But why should stepping outside be totally different? It’s sad that our city byways are usually filthy and disorderly. But maybe, just maybe, if the outside was properly designed and maintained as well, people would keep it clean and orderly too. Let people live with trash, and they’ll keep it as trash, even gaining the license to compound the trash already there. But give them a decent environment, and they’ll keep it decent. I am no psychologist, but this seems to be a valid observation.
Our buildings and surroundings are born of the needs of the populace. But at the same time, those same buildings and surroundings also affect the people using them. If our planning and design can shape these structures so that they shape our feelings and attitudes in the proper manner in the right context, then we have successfully humanized our environment. Now, the only thing I have to worry about hospitals looking like five-star hotels is that they might charge me five-star rates as well. J
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