Finally, we must be aware of how the laboratory equipment is to be delivered to the site.

The first option represents a trend in hospital design in which patient rooms are open and easily accessible from corridors, in order to improve staff-patient visibility and increase operational efficiency.Unfortunately, this in turn means that the toilets are located on the façade, blocking daylight and views out, and thereby interfering with design for wellness principles..

The second option, traditionally adopted in many hospital wards, locates the toilets adjacent to the corridors and places the patient area closer to the façade.Although this partially supports design for wellness principles with patients benefitting from the connection to the outdoors, the layout is detrimental to the staff-patient connection and operational efficiency..The third option, preferred by Bryden Wood, arranges the toilets in a nested position between wards.

An excellent example of healthy architecture, this option fully supports design for wellbeing with beds open to both the façade and corridors.In this situation, patient wellbeing is prioritised on every level, as the nested toilet positioning provides a connection to both the outdoor environment and hospital staff, improving both wellbeing and hospital management.. As shown in the following diagrams, daylight levels are better in the outboard and our preferred nested solution, and the nested option has an improved uniformity ratio.

An adequately designed ward would also facilitate a variety of active views out, both to the outdoors and circulation areas, creating a connection to nature in line with biophilic design principles, as well as a better thermal experience.. Further ideas to improve visual comfort in hospital wards are: the adoption of circadian lighting, a better user experience of artificial lighting control and the use of further biophilic design techniques (colour palettes, patterns and vegetation)..

Figure 2: Daylight availability (SDA).Passivhaus standard has always been focused on operational energy, and it is only in recent years that the focus has grown to both operational carbon emissions and the embodied carbon within the building..

Operational carbon in sustainable building design.From an operational carbon perspective, Passivhaus’ low energy targets mean the dwellings are likely to achieve very low carbon emissions.

As a result, it becomes technically and financially feasible to offset any carbon emission through the use of building mounted, renewable technologies.This means that for certain types of residential buildings, it is possible to achieve net zero operational carbon without the need for a PPA.