Public Experience of Modern Saudi Mega Hospitals: a Space Syntax Case Study of King Fahad Specialist Hospital, Dammam, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Access to healthcare is a significant factor that contributes to a healthy population. Thus, contemporary hospitals need to be patient-centered, be located close to the community, provide communal amenities, offer public areas that are easy to navigate, and most importantly, have easy access to all citizens (Setola and Borgianni 2016). The thesis is an investigation of the accessibility patterns of King Fahad Specialist Hospital (KFSH) in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Accessibility is understood here as the property of a street or corridor network that creates possibilities of movement. Modelling of such accessibility is done with Space Syntax-a computerized methodology based on rigorous social concepts (Hillier and Hanson, 1984; Hillier, 2007). Investigations are carried out in three levels – the hospital’s relationship to the city, accessibility patterns inside the campus and wayfinding inside its main building. An important additional investigation looks into the geographical characteristics of all Dammam healthcare facilities to see how they are connected to their neighborhoods and the larger city. The findings are contextualized within previous literature and discussed in terms of the Saudi context. It demonstrates how KFSH functions in terms of space syntax accessibility and suggests possible changes for improvement. The thesis also shows that the location of all medical facilities in Dammam is indeed connected in metric terms to their neighborhoods but are also part of the global system as seen through topo-geometric analysis.