Description
Grant Peer Review: Active Hospital: How architecture shapes patient activity1) Wider (arts-based) research context:
Older adults often experience steep declines in physical, cognitive, and social functioning during hospitalisation, largely due to inactivity. Although hospitals are dynamic environments, their design and routines frequently discourage patient activity. From an affordance perspective, it is not only the physical features of spaces but also patients’ perceptions of what activities environments enable that shape behaviour. Yet no large-scale study has examined how hospital environments afford or constrain physical, cognitive and social activity, or how these patterns evolve during and beyond hospitalisation.
2) Objectives:
Active Hospital addresses the central question: How do hospital environments shape the activity affordances perceived by older patients, and how do these affordances influence physical, social, and cognitive activity during and beyond hospitalisation? The project will: (1) identify which built environment features support or hinder activity; (2) examine how patient characteristics and ward cultures mediate perception and enactment; (3) trace how activity patterns shift after discharge; and (4) synthesise findings into a new conceptual framework of hospitals as activity-affordance fields.
3) Approach:
Using a mixed-methods, multi-site design, the study will investigate 10–15 Austrian hospitals. Work Package 1 (WP1) analyses designed affordances through document review and designer interviews. WP2 captures perceived affordances via patient questionnaires, while WP3 documents enacted activity through observations, wearables, video, or diaries. WP4 examines affordance-enactment gaps through patient and nurse interviews, including follow-ups after discharge. WP5 integrates results into visual affordance-reality maps and a theoretical framework. Three PhD projects (physical, cognitive, social activity) ensure depth within domains and synthesis across them.
4) Level of originality:
Active Hospital reframes hospitals not as static backdrops but as dynamic fields of activity affordances. Methodologically, it integrates patient self-assessment, activity tracking, and qualitative inquiry at an unprecedented scale, producing the first longitudinal evidence of how hospital affordances shape activity during hospitalisation and whether this leaves lasting impact on post-discharge life. The project introduces “affordance-enactment gaps” and “affordance-reality maps” as new conceptual tools for studying the links between the built environment, perception, and activity.
5) Primary researchers involved:
The project is led by Dr.-Ing. Maja Kevdzija, Assistant Professor in Healthcare Design at TU Wien, with a track record of internationally recognised research and coordination of an EU-funded project. The interdisciplinary team includes a postdoctoral researcher and three PhD students with backgrounds in rehabilitation sciences, psychology, and social/behavioural health research.
| Period | 14 Jan 2026 |
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| Held at | Austrian Science Fund, Austria |