© AR-UP 2019 Architecture & Urbanism… A Smart Outlook Cultural Impact on Design of Inpatient Rooms in Pediatric Healthcare Facilities in Egypt Iskander, Mariam 1 ; Sherif, Ahmed 2 ; Mansour, Yasser 3 Abstract: Hospitalization of young children is an overwhelming experience for both patients and their families. The complexity of healthcare environments, due to functional requirements and user variety, may drive healthcare designers to disregard humane environments in favor of adhering to regulations, codes and guidelines. Recently, interest in patient centered environments and evidence based design has grown globally; as the need to define factors affecting humanization of healthcare buildings arises. Although literature provides ground for the impact of the physical environment on well-being and healthcare outcomes, only few studies address cultural impact on designing supportive environments; specifically, in pediatric inpatient units, where psychological support is essential for recovery of patients. Since the Egyptian healthcare market is expanding rapidly to accommodate society demands, the need to fill in the literature gap has evolved so as to provide evidence based, informative research that can support design decision-making. This paper aims to explore the impact of culture on designing psychologically supportive spaces in pediatric hospitals in Egypt. Using Ulrich’s theory of supportive design; qualit ative methods are used to collect data on patients’ interaction with built environments in terms of social Support, positive distraction and perception of control. Observations from five inpatient pediatric units are recorded to generate behavioral maps that explore the usage of space and user needs. Results highlighted culture specific issues, that are related to Egyptian context. Social support is shown to impact families, where control and privacy are compromised to seek social interaction. Opportunities for formation of social support groups showed up in several spaces. Positive distractions are more significant to patients; where the view from window and thematic design impact is observed. This paper presents researcher’s observations. Patients and Families input is addressed in later stages of the study, through in-depth interviews and case studies. Keywords: Supportive Design; Environmental Psychology; Healthcare Architecture; Evidence based Design, Culture Responsive 1 Introduction Hospital inpatient room is one type of healthcare spaces that has received much attention from researchers and designers as it plays an important role in the care delivery process. As a result, strong evidence from many studies is available to support the optimization of different aspects of the patient room environment. These aspects have been found to impact outcomes in the domains of patient safety, quality of care, worker safety and efficiency, as well as organizational outcomes. This paper aims to investigate the cultural context impact on supportive environments for pediatric patients and their families in Egypt, by applying Ulrich’s theory of supportive design (Ulrich, 1991); through evaluating space perception in terms of control, social support and distraction. With the expansion in the Egyptian health sector, this research contributes to the market needs, providing evidence to support the design decision making process. The results of this research can be used to outline culture specific design guidelines for pediatric inpatient units in Egypt, that is family and patient centered. 1 Ain Shams University; mariam.iskander@aucegypt.edu 2 The American University in Cairo; asherif@aucegypt.edu 3 Ain Shams University; y_mansour2000@yahoo.com 728