The Role of Color in Accelerating the Process of Recovery in a Hospital Case Study: Imam Khomeini Hospital

The main goal of healthcare facility providers and designers is to create a healing environment. The concept of healing in the current century has led to significant changes in the design of healthcare environments and has positive effects on recovery process. The influence of colors and their impacts on the mind and the body of human have been proven in different ways and the proper use and misuse of them has many positive and negative effects on our lives. Various studies is done in the field of the impacts of colors on the human mind and body, creating joy and depression, and physical and mental balance. The color also has an important role in improving qualities of space and way-finding. A hospital is a building in which the color can be used as an effective architectural element for users who are generally patients. Basically, colors and their impacts on patients have been paid less attention to in new healthcare and medical centers. If we use colors in proper way in hospitals and medical centers, from micro to macro scale, we could increase mental focus and comfortable feeling in the environment and also increase more desire to stay with scientific and principle-centered planning. Color has inevitable impacts on patients’ morale. Color can create a situation that is actually curable, i.e. it leads to self-confidence and keeps fear of the patients’ mind away. Color therapists and medical professionals presented unique treatments in the field of health, especially mental health. Knowing how to use color, as a factor in recovery, reducing fear and anxiety, improving patient’s comfort and creating a friendly atmosphere are the main aims of this research. This research tries to pay more attention to patients who have been hospitalized for long periods, children and people with mental health problems who have specific needs. This paper was based on literature review and content analysis of theoretical foundation of this research, observation, data collection through questionnaires from Tehran Imam Khomeini Hospital inpatients; then, it proposed appropriate solutions through analysis and evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the design, and presented how to use color in some parts of a hospital in which colors play an important role in the physical and psychological impacts. When using colors for patients, we should consider emotional, psychological and physical impacts on their health. Choosing the proper color can lead to increased protection of health in hospitals. Discussion seeks to answer the question of "what is the role of color in accelerating the process of recovery?" The path will be: the concept of colors, color impacts on physical and mental illness with two approaches to disease progression and treatment and its application in architecture which have healthcare functions. Finally, satisfaction of Imam Khomeini Hospital inpatients from colors used in the hospital has been studied and then the table of colors is proposed for the designers. Finally, it is hoped that the present paper may help in clarifying issues related to the application of the principles of color in architecture and specifically design of hospitals.