‘Some people talk about children as though they're completely different’: Hospital Art, Architecture and Design for Children in Modern Britain

Children’s hospitals are often thought to be special places, marked by particular attention to emotions and careful consideration of inclusive design. Photographs of children’s hospitals, or design for children within general hospitals, often showcase primary colours and playfulness. Such aesthetic qualities are, at first glance, exceptional for healthcare environments and reinforce the idea that children’s hospitals are special or unique. This article, however, reconsiders this notional of exceptionalism in two ways. Firstly, it uses the history of modern British hospitals to show that some of these qualities – such as bright colour and playfulness – might have once been a special feature of design for children, but were qualities of some adult hospital design by the end of the twentieth century. It makes this point, further, through a collection of interviews with professionals working in hospital art, architecture, and design. In so doing, it places greater emphasis on process; interviews show the general expansion of person-centred design, and indicate that it has closed the gap between design for children and adults in both process and outcome.