PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that categorises the features and characteristics of the built environment that impact on health outcomes.Design/methodology/approachAn extensive literature review was carried out. A total of 1,163 abstracts were assessed, leading to 92 papers being reviewed.FindingsThere is a considerable amount of evidence linking healthcare environments to patients' health outcomes, despite the lack of clarity in relation to cause‐effect relationships.Originality/valueThe paper proposes a theoretical framework linking different built environment characteristics to health outcomes. This framework provides a structure to group causal effects according to their relation with design features, materials and ambient properties, art and aesthetic aspects and use of the built environment.

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Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to holistically discuss, explore and synthesise the key literature on Visual Management, an important, yet highly fragmented subject that is frequently referred in lean production accounts. Research Methodology -An extensive literature review was conducted to classify the current literature, to explore the different aspects and limitations of the current discussions on the subject, to clarify in what ways Visual Management benefits manifest themselves in a workplace and to identify the future research focus. Findings-Visual Management is an important close-range communication strategy based on cognitively effective information conveyance. This strategy has been frequently discussed in the production management literature. However, (a) the literature is fragmented as to the roles of Visual Management in a production setting, (b) the body of literature lacks integrated focus and cohesion with an abundance of related terminology from scholarly works and consultant books, (c) a practical VM tools taxonomy and a visual workplace implementation framework were presented (d) there is poor clarity with regards to the functions (benefits) that Visual Management may provide within organisations; nine conceptual Visual Management functions were proposed (e) a wide array of future research directions related to Visual Management was identified. Originality/Value-This paper synthesises the key literature related to Visual Management, providing a conceptual picture of the current knowledge.

An investigation examined the structured scientific evidence on healthcare facilities (the healing built environment -HBE) and its impact on patients' health outcomes under a holistic conceptual evaluative framework. The integrative review considered 127 papers (of which 59 were review papers). It found there was no adequate framework that could integrate existing research findings holistically. Such a holistic framework needs to demonstrate the cumulative and interactive effects of various HBE characteristics on patients' health outcomes and wellbeing. An environment-occupant-health (E-O-H) framework is proposed, taking a holistic perspective to identify and evaluate different HBE characteristics. The E-O-H framework should support future research by (1) identifying the HBE characteristics that affect health outcomes; (2) defining appropriate future research designs; and (3) understanding the need for holistic analysis of the integrated effects of diverse HBE characteristics on health outcomes.

This paper describes a study analysing the front-end of the design process for primary healthcare facilities in the UK. A case study approach was used to gain a detailed understanding of the clients' activities at the front-end of the design process. The research identified the process undertaken to define new requirements, the difficulties faced by the various parties involved and the impact these had at the frontend. The findings have implications for managing requirements with novice construction clients. Keywords: built environment for healthcare, front-end design activity, requirements capture Corresponding author:Patricia Tzortzopoulos e-mail: p.tzortzopoulos@salford.ac.uk Tel: + 44 (0) 161 2954284 Fax: +44 (0) 161 2954587 2 The management of the design process has been a topic of study for over 40 years. There have been successive theories postulated with regards to effectively managing the process (see, for instance, Oakley, 1990; Cross, 1994; Gorb, 1994;Cooper and Press, 1995; Mozota, 2003). The relationships between the client and the designer and the effectiveness of briefing have been identified within such theories as one of the main contributing factors for good design (Cooper and Jones, 1995;Barrett and Stanley, 1999). Furthermore, it is recognised that at least 80% of the costs is determined at the front-end of the process, at the briefing and design stage (Bruce and Cooper, 2000). This is especially the case in construction (CRISP, 2001).There is currently a large programme of public building underway for the primary healthcare sector in the UK (DoH, 1998). The ethos of this programme is to deliver health and social care jointly so that people can have better, easier access to services through buildings which should also help regenerate deprived urban areas. It is recognised that the design of primary healthcare buildings is essential for the improvement of the services delivered to the community (Gesler et al., 2004). This has created an opportunity to take a fresh approach to the buildings that house healthcare provision, as well as an opportunity to consider the impact that the physical environment has on patients and on healthcare staff.Primary Care Trusts are now responsible for redesigning primary healthcare services and are 'the clients' of the new facilities being produced. As such, they are responsible for a number of activities, including identifying stakeholders, capturing requirements and briefing designers. However, Primary Care Trusts are newly formed organisations, and have no previous experience or skills in design and construction. They therefore provide an opportunity to examine the process of establishing requirements and briefing in a new context by inexperienced people working within new organisational structures. We use the terms 'novice/inexperienced client' to define this scenario.The main objective of this research is to better understand how novice construction clients actually develop design requirements at the front-end and how the circumstances in which t...