Establishing a Quantitative Assessment Tool for Biophilia in Healthcare Facilities

This study aims at developing a novel assessment tool that can quantitatively evaluate the level of biophilia integration in healthcare facilities. The developed assessment tool helps to address the difficulty of biophilia quantification in the built environment due to the broad nature of the biophilia concept. The methodological approach for the tool depends on employing biophilic design patterns as a basis for biophilia, where these patterns are correlated to a group of biophilia-related features of the WELL Building Standard. This correlation is attained through a list of Integrated Design Guidelines (IDGs) that is proposed to act as an intermediate ground between the two sides of the assessment tool. Finally, the selected WELL features are used to assess the healthcare facilities in the form of a biophilia score. This biophilia score offers three assessment levels for biophilia integration, which are silver, gold, and platinum. To achieve credibility in the results, the assessment tool has been validated against Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) in Singapore, the winner of the ‘Stephen Kellert Biophilic Design Award’ in 2017, which sets an ideal example for biophilia integration. The results of the assessment tool managed to capture the high level of biophilia integration for the validated hospital by achieving a platinum level on the scoring scale, proving the efficiency of the assessment tool to quantitatively evaluate biophilia. Such quantifiable assessment results help to conclude the strengths and weaknesses of healthcare facilities, leading to the development of a biophilia plan for improvement, which can enhance the integration of biophilic design.