信息化背景下的医院建筑空间转型与设计应对——基于流空间视角

Transformation and design coping of hospital building space in the context of informatization:From the perspective of space of flows

在信息化背景下,针对医院数字与物质空间并存互构的特点,采用流空间理论视角,以信息流、人流和物流为要素,建立医院流空间的构成与转型分析框架,并阐释了其信息化转型机制:在社会经济效益的支配下,医院流要素发生数字迁移,产生数字投影空间,并引发功能网络转型,从而在流空间逻辑下改变空间节点分布状态,使医院空间呈现出“多义化节点空间”和“分布式形态结构”等典型形态,具有去中心、碎片化和不稳定特点。在此基础上,进一步从优化功能空间组织、调整空间面积配置和保留适当的灵活性3个方面探讨了建筑设计应对思路,指出“划分并组织局部中心”将成为新的重要问题,其关键在于合理决策空间节点的分解、分散与重组、重聚,可借助中心性等网络分析来应对。

In the context of informatization,hospital space is evolving towards coexistence and interaction of digital and physical form,with organizational logic distinct from traditional physical spaces,as well as spatial state instability.It poses challenges for adequately interpreting the space through existing frameworks for hospital building analyzing.Consequently,current research tends to focus narrowly on the installation and operational spaces for digital equipment,failing to address core issues such as overall function and flow in hospital building design.To address this,it introduces a well-established theory,“space of flows,”from urban spatial informatization research.Based on it,as well as tailored to the scale and research priorities of hospital buildings,it establishes an analytical framework for the composition and transformation of hospital space of flows,taking information,human,and material flows as the“flow elements.”The hospital space of flows comprises three layers:the flow elements and flow carriers,functional and spatial node,and the resulting socio-economic benefits.Within them,the morphological hierarchy represented by the centrality and asymmetry of nodes constitutes the structural characteristics of hospital space of flows.Its formation follows a“function-space”matching logic,incorporating both the“space of places”and“space of flows”logic.The former emphasizes geographical contiguity in function organization,and the latter emphasizes functional linkage,which can disrupt the control of material processes over the overall space.Through the transmission of this“function-space”matching logic,the socio-economic benefits generated by hospital spaces become the dominant force shaping their morphology.Based on this framework,it further elaborates on the mechanism of informatization transformation in hospital spaces.Driven by socio-economic benefits,at the micro level,hospital flow elements undergo a“digital migration”,meaning hospital information flows transform from material to digital forms.This migration transforms physical spaces into digital spaces and projects“digital projection spaces”onto the physical realm,physical spaces necessary for the placement and operation of related equipment.Digital projection spaces have distinct morphological requirements from traditional physical spaces,triggering spatial transformation at the micro level and supporting changes in macro-level layouts.After digital migration,the macro-level functional network structure and its spatial matching logic in hospitals also undergo transformations,with nodes,connections,connection strengths,and hierarchical structures in the material functional network becoming increasingly decentralized and fragmented,as well as an overall instability.Subsequently,the“space of flows”logic emerges,causing different nodes in hospitals to“disperse”,and also allowing for the“decomposition”of one node into sub-nodes.Then,they “reaggregate” with other nodes into new clusters,some even“recombine”to form new spatial nodes.This process results in a generally decentralized,fragmented,and unstable distribution of hospital spatial nodes.Consequently,hospital spaces exhibit typical morphologies such as“polysemous node spaces”and“distributed morphological structures”.The former belongs to the micro level,including synchronic polysemous nodes composed of functions close to each other in the process,and synchronic or diachronic polysemous nodes formed by the compound of functions with similar spatial needs.The latter belongs to the macro level,with multiple independent and parallel local centers which integrate various stages of similar patients’treatments,accommodating diverse medical processes involving multidisciplinary cooperation and consultation.Besides,medical functions that remain undecomposed or unrecombined become spatial units juxtaposed with these local centers.Finally,it discusses architectural design coping approaches.Firstly,in functional space organization,a core aspect of hospital building design,“delineating and organizing local centers”will emerge as a parallel priority alongside traditional functional zoning.The key lies in making rational decisions about the decomposition,dispersion,recombination,and reaggregation of nodes to balance local centers with the overall hospital space.Simultaneously,suitable layout patterns and spatial morphologies of nodes should also be considered.Secondly,in area allocation,beyond the traditional approach of“department allocation→section allocation→room allocation”,local center area allocation at various scales must be considered.Additionally,factors such as digital projection spaces,node space decomposition/recombination,and changes in material flow intensity necessitate the reassessment of area requirements for specific functions.Thirdly,to accommodate the unstable nature of hospital space of flows,designing with appropriate flexibility is imperative.This can be achieved by combining traditional methods of analyzing material connections node by node with network analyses that focus on centrality and asymmetry.Moreover,modular layouts,moveable partitions,and environmental transformation equipment can facilitate flexible space utilization.