Shops Are Not Caring Spaces: Thinking Harder About Healthcare in Retail Conversions
The Logic for Relocating Healthcare into Retail
Across towns and cities, former shops stand vacant, their interiors hollowed out by the shift to online retail. These are the places where many healthcare services will soon be located. Most now accept the logic of this move. Locating healthcare in former retail settings improves accessibility, creates new anchor tenants in struggling high streets, relieves pressure on acute hospitals and supports the left shift of care closer to communities, as advocated by the NHS Long Term Plan. Economically, socially and clinically, the case for relocation is sound.
But relocation alone is not enough. Retail buildings were not designed for care. To unlock their potential, we must apply the same craft and precision that retail designers bring to their environments. This means developing a design toolkit as robust as retail’s, not a fixed set of rules but a way of thinking critically about how people experience these spaces….
(Read more here:)