Hospital Navigation: Spatial Configuration and Spatial Cognition in University Clinical Center of Kosovo in Prishtina

The aim if this paper is to analyse the level of ease at which people navigate within the University Clinical Centre of Kosovo in Prishtina (UCCK). In a hospital setting, the objective for the user is to navigate easily and independently to the destination in order to reduce negative impacts on human wellbeing and operational costs. Navigation is important for employees, familiar with the environment and for visitors, unfamiliar with it. However, the paper is focused only on those familiar with the hospital setting – employees. Research has shown that navigation depends on the clarity of the built form’s component arrangements; that there is a high correlation between navigation and spatial configuration. Most of the studies on navigation in hospitals are focused on building scale. This paper is focused on the hospital campus of (UCCK) which belongs to the pavilion typology. As such, it shares many similarities with cities and has far more complex structure than other hospital typologies. So, the questions this paper is trying to answer are: how easy is to navigate within UCCK; what is the relation between spatial cognition and spatial configuration in the hospital setting? To answer, the research is leaning on the cognitive approach designed by K. Lynch based on mental maps and on the configurational approach based on space syntax theory and methodology. The paper reveals that UCCK lacks a clear image and has a low level of intelligibility. The outcome of this research should impact the future master plan of the hospital campus.