In the years immediately before the pandemic, a growing understanding of the link between mental, emotional, and physical health was leading hospital architecture away from the cold, clinical aesthetic of the past and toward a warmer, more comforting atmosphere.
The pandemic uncovered a need for further modernization. Today’s hospitals are designed for efficient, comfortable accommodation for large numbers of people, while maintaining an atmosphere as safe as it is welcoming.
As we head into 2025, here are 10 hospital design trends architects are using to make hospitals efficient, safe, and comfortable.
- Flexible spaces
- Easy navigation
- Integrated security
- Spacious waiting areas
- Triage areas
- Private outpatient rooms
- Soothing aesthetics
- Onstage/Offstage environments
- Decentralized workstations
- Advanced infection control
Top 10 Elements in Hospital Design You’ll See in 2025
1. Flexible Spaces to Suit a Variety of Uses
COVID-19 showed hospital administrators the drawback to single-use spaces. Overwhelmed hospitals treated patients in hallways and waiting rooms. Staff scrambled to make areas designed for one use suitable for another.
To prevent a repeat of that challenge, architects are designing flexible spaces that can adapt to multiple uses. For example, a medical surgery can be designed to adapt into an ICU room if the ICU is over capacity. Universal patient rooms are equipped with all the infrastructure needed to provide both general medical and high-acuity care in the same location. Corridors near the emergency department may be designed to triage patients in a surge event.
2. Easy Navigation
The patient experience can be viewed as a sequence of events, starting in the parking lot. People arriving at the hospital are often already in an agitated emotional state. Not knowing where to go is an added stressor that can be relieved with thoughtful design.
The modern hospital is typically at the center of a healthcare campus. Campus streets and parking areas should be clearly marked, with intuitive navigation.
The building itself should have only a few points of entry, and those should be clearly marked. Besides making it easier for patients to find their way, reducing the number of exterior doors improves security by making it harder to enter the hospital unnoticed.
Inside, trends in intuitive wayfinding include connecting departments along a promenade and using design concepts like distinctive color schemes and themes leading to different areas of the hospital.
3. Integrated Security to Keep People Safe
Incidents of violence in hospitals are disturbingly high. In response, security measures like visitor check in and weapons detectors at entrances are increasingly common.
An inviting space can still accommodate added security. There’s no need to hide the measures; in some cases, having to walk through a metal detector and sign in at the desk gives hospital visitors a sense of comfort, because they know the building is safe.
Throughout the hospital, designers can promote security by removing blind spots. Open corridors withclear lines of sight and staff areas with unobstructed visibility into patient treatment areas improve the safety staff, visitors, and patients.
4. Spacious Waiting Areas
When patients arrive at the emergency department, they’re often accompanied by multiple support people. Entire families sometimes come together, especially if the patient is a child or an elderly person.
In response, many hospitals are opting to expand the ED waiting area. Since wait times can be unpredictable, designers are filling these larger spaces with a variety of comfortable seating options, including chairs, couches and loveseats.
5. Triage Areas to Treat Patients More Efficiently
Hospital administrators are increasingly interested in efficiency – getting patients who need hospitalization admitted quickly and getting those with minor illnesses treated and on their way. Designers are creating triage spaces in emergency departments to help staff quickly assess a patient’s condition.
Before being called back to a room, patients are assessed in a bay, ideally immediately after checking in. Staff can then prioritize resources so the sickest or most badly injured patients are seen first.
6. Private Outpatient Rooms to Facilitate Healing
Hospitals have been trending toward single-occupancy inpatient rooms for years. A growing trend is providing private rooms for outpatients as well.
Private rooms have replaced curtained bays for outpatient surgery prep and recovery. This facilitates healing by providing patients a calm environment to prepare for and recover from surgery. They also have confidence that while they’re undergoing their procedure, their belongings are safely locked away.
7. Soothing Aesthetics to Create an Atmosphere of Wellness
Modern healthcare has shifted away from treating illness and toward a more comprehensive view of wellness. It recognizes how experiential factors from air quality to sound control to space for comfortable movement can impact a person’s overall wellbeing.
Daylight has become increasingly important in good hospital design. Biophilic elements that connect people to the natural world have been shown to promote mental and emotional health, reducing stress and its negative effects on the body.
Soothing aesthetics aren’t limited to public spaces. Clinical areas like surgical suites can incorporate color palettes drawn from nature to create a tranquil atmosphere. This calms anxious patients and offers staff a pleasant working environment.
8. Onstage/Offstage Environments to Keep Some Work Out of Sight
Most modern healthcare facilities now follow the onstage/offstage design concept made famous by Disney theme parks. Public “onstage” areas are those seen by visitors. Activities in these areas are curated to create a peaceful environment.
“Offstage” areas include corridors and elevators out of sight of visitors. This allows staff to move items like laundry bins and large pieces of equipment without disrupting the tranquil atmosphere of public spaces. It also provides privacy to patients as they are moved from one area of the hospital to another.
9. Decentralized Workstations to Help Staff Work More Efficiently
The classic nurse’s station in the center of the floor is being replaced by multiple, smaller workstations throughout the department.
Decentralization offers staff better visibility to patient rooms and minimizes blind spots. Strategically locating workstations and supply depots throughout the floor provides more efficient movement of staff. Instead of walking down the hall to a central supply closet a dozen times a shift, a nurse can find everything they need within a few steps of a patient room.
10. Rigorous Infection Control to Reduce Hospital-Acquired Illnesses
About 1 in 31 hospital patients has at least one health-care associated infection. The best approach to reducing infection is thorough sanitation, but there are ways hospital design can make sanitation protocols more effective.
One trend is the introduction of bacteria-resistant finishes like copper and Microban on high-touch surfaces like handrails, door handles, and countertops. These finishes may repel microbes, prevent them from sticking to the surface, or actively kill them, keeping surfaces cleaner between disinfections.
High-quality ventilation systems can prevent airborne diseases from spreading through the hospital. Infectious-disease wards might be outfitted with independently operated ventilation systems that effectively seal off the rest of the hospital from contaminated air.
Air ducts can also be fitted with lamps that emit UV-C light, a chemical-free method of purifying air as it moves through the ventilation system.
Creating Healing Spaces for Generations to Come
Lawrence Group is a national leader in designing healthcare environments dedicated to quality patient care. We create healing spaces that serve the needs of medical facilities and their patients today and in the future.
Discover our portfolio of work in the healthcare sector.
Written by Ryan King, Principal for Healthcare Practice at Lawrence Group