Architectural design of a secure forensic state psychiatric hospital

This article describes the architectural design of a secure forensic state psychiatric hospital. The project combined input from staff at all levels of the client organization, outside consultants, and a team of experienced architects. The design team was able to create a design that maximized patient dignity and privacy on one hand, and the ability of staff to observe all patient activity on the other. The design centers around 24‐bed units, broken into smaller living wings of eight beds each. Each eight‐bed living wing has its own private bathrooms (two) and showers (two), as well as a small living area solely reserved for these eight patients and their guests. An indoor–outdoor dayroom allows patients to go outside whenever they choose, while allowing staff to continue observing them. The heart of the facility is a large treatment mall, designed to foster the acquisition of social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral skills that will help patients to safely return to their communities. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.