Abstract:

Contemporary teaching program for students in design majors requires multidimensional actions to be taken.
Tasks that are part of the education program for architects involve the development of skills in finding creative solutions to design problems, creation of spatial solutions which meet specific human needs. On the other hand, the investment process sets its participants specific tasks connected with their social responsibility, while in the process of educating, social interactions between design actions should be highlighted in tandem with the creation of frameworks for the participation of all user groups in the social life.

The Students' Competition for the interior design and the visual identification of the WSS pediatric department in Rybnik, carried out in April 2018 at the faculty of Architecture of the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, had been the effect of a common venture undertaken by the hospital's employees: the head of the pediatric department - Katarzyna Musiał, MD, PhD, the hospital's management and the representatives of the Architectural Faculty under the leadership of Vice dean for students Dorota Winnicka-Jasłowska, PhD, Eng. of Architecture. Employees as well as students of the Architectural Faculty joined in the design process together with the hospital staff.

The design task was to devise a conception for the interior as well as prepare visual information for the pediatric department which must be subject to renovation. Actions connected with the organization of the competition, described in the article, as well as the presentation of the final effects are an example of diversified initiatives: on the one hand, they are the result of a cooperation struck between the university and the social surrounding (in this case the health care facility), on the other hand, they constitute an exchange of experiences between students who major in architecture and interior design and the participants coming from the designed space – employees of the pediatric department.

Assumptions of the competition gave character to the actions completed by the students, with extra importance attached to skills in team work as well as acquisition of knowledge on user preferences as well as their functional abilities. In the case of designs made for users such as children, this is of key importance in the making of a user friendly space.

The following assumptions were accepted:
• education through experience - practical application of knowledge on the subject of designing health care facilities and the significance of social spaces in the real conditions
• preparation of conceptual assumptions on the basic of focus meetings with the hospital staff, done by means of site inspection at the facility
• acquisition of team work competence as well as the awareness of social responsibility in the profession of an architect: creation of space that connects the assumptions of the healing environment with the characteristics of social space intended for the patients of the pediatric departments and their carers.

Contact and direct experience of the designed space, observation of the manner in which it is used both had a significant influence on the design approach in the competition works. The effects of the multidimensional actions which prepare for the design process shall serve as starting point for the development of interior conceptions and the visual information of the pediatric department of hospital.

Keywords:

Interior design, design methods, students' competition, health care objects, didactic methods, design thinking.