Analysis of Strongly Programmed Workplace Environments : Architectural configuration and time-space properties of hospital work

Finding relations between configuration and activity of the level found in cities in strongly programmed buildings have challenged research for a long time. With increasing clarity, it has shown to have to do with how and where activity takes place. Compared to cities and large public complexes, workplaces are more centred around specific locations and the activities in them, whereas streets are more defined by movement between spaces exterior to the street system (i.e. between interior spaces). One reason for this difference is the time spent moving versus the time spent on specific locations, but also the way in which certain ranges of movement and activity is more programmed within workplaces than in cities. Most of this is well known within the field. What this paper adds to the discussion is a study of different spatializations of workflow of different roles and for different tasks. The paper does this through the concept of spatial practice, which is considered as the interplay between spatial configuration, organizational configuration, and the configuration of work processes and routines. In this way some conditions of workplace programs are brought to the forefront, and workplace distribution and organisation routines are discussed through direct and indirect benefits of different practices, as well as internal and external conditions of programs or tasks. The basis for the work is empirical studies of several hospital units within one large scale university hospital, offering a manageable variation of workflow and spatial configuration.