Design for isolation, confinement, and mental health during intensive care

The postpandemic scenario offers new options in the design of health devoted structures that could implement the lesson learned in terms of technology, robotics, machine learning applications, and artificial intelligence. This is particularly true when dealing with some aspect related to intensive care units, where isolation, confinement, and well-being preservation are severe constraints. Several aspects in intensive care units design have a strong similarity and correspondence in the problem setting for application to space exploration, where it is mandatory to guarantee health preservation and medical and psychological support to astronauts. A synthesis of these aspects is here presented and discussed. In conclusion, architecture and design could be very impactful for enabling patients' well-being during ICU isolation period, with an unprecedented opportunity to develop further and adapt these well-being enabling factors for ICUs facilities inside hospitals, improving patients conditions and treatments effectiveness.