From is to ought - formalising public sector briefing for hospital buildings

Abstract

Transforming bits of a strategic plan into physical infrastructure requires the preparation of briefing documents for the professional team. This task is both complex and specialised, particularly in the case of health-care infrastructure. Furthermore preparation of a brief lies beyond the scope of work of standard services provided by architects and other built environment professionals. For structural configuration reasons, there are strong variations in the methods to preparing these documents, and strong variations in the resulting building infrastructure. Some formalisation of the briefing system, which may involve a combination of interventions such as installation of national norms, standards, and guidelines, compulsory peer review mechanisms, and human capital development (there are few specialised courses in South Africa to address health-care building design or briefing) may well yield improved hospital buildings. This paper explores the ways in which briefing documents are prepared for public sector hospitals both in South Africa and abroad. Notwithstanding the particular opportunities and challenges of the context, to what extent should South Africa formalise briefing procedures in order to improve hospital buildings?