{
  "abstract": "Stroke is a leading cause of disability worldwide, and stroke rehabilitation plays a critical role in recovery. Early rehabilitation often occurs in a hospital setting, but the hospital built environment is rarely designed to support the specific needs and priorities of people who have had a stroke. In recent decades, there has been an ongoing debate regarding the benefits of single versus multi-bed rooms in healthcare settings. This debate centres around balancing privacy and rest, with social interaction and safety. While single rooms may be beneficial for some people, multi-bed rooms may be better for others. Both options, however, come with their own set of drawbacks in the context of stroke rehabilitation. In this study, we conducted a collaborative Living Lab to design a series of provocative-prototype hybrid room typologies that merged different aspects of single and multi-bed rooms to provide options specific for stroke rehabilitation. These typologies were used to generate four alternative bedroom designs which were modelled in virtual reality. The designs were informed by a values-based brief, outlining a set of predefined key criteria for optimising stroke rehabilitation environments: opportunities for activity and rest, wellbeing, safety, efficiency, flexibility, personal control, access to outdoors and green space, and access to a positive and stimulating environment. Twenty lived-experience and professional experts evaluated these virtual designs against the predefined values-based criteria. Evaluation revealed two preferred hybrid hospital room designs that incorporated beneficial features of both multi-bed and single-bed rooms. Our approach of values-based design and evaluation within a virtual environment proved an effective means of generating and evaluating design options with meaningful input from a wide range of stakeholders. These findings highlight the potential for flexible and adaptable room design to meet the specific needs and priorities of people participating in early-stage rehabilitation after stroke.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "STRÜDAL, Centre for Design Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia",
    "Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia",
    "The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia",
    "The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia",
    "La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia",
    "The University of South Australia, UniSA Creative, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia"
  ],
  "article_type": "Research Article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 9,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Marcus White"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Mark Huen Choong Lam"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Tianyi Yang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Ruby Lipson-Smith"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Juan Pablo Saa"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Aaron Davis"
    },
    {
      "name": "Mehrnoush Latifi Khorasgani"
    },
    {
      "name": "Julie Bernhardt"
    },
    {
      "name": "on behalf of NOVELL Redesign"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2zmzd7ersda5b.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0356623",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "2zmzd7ersda5b",
  "issns": [
    "1932-6203"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0356623",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2742|Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Computer and information sciences/Computer architecture/User interfaces/Virtual reality"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Engineering and technology/Electronics engineering/Computer engineering/Man-computer interface/Virtual reality"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Health care/Health care facilities"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Medical conditions/Cerebrovascular diseases/Stroke"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Neurology/Cerebrovascular diseases/Stroke"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Neurology/Neurorehabilitation"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Rehabilitation medicine"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Rehabilitation medicine/Neurorehabilitation"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Rehabilitation medicine/Stroke rehabilitation"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Vascular medicine/Stroke"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Physical sciences/Physics/Acoustics"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Research and analysis methods/Research design"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7207734385",
  "pdf_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0356623&type=printable",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-03",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2zmzd7ersda5b.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:56Z",
      "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0356623",
      "source": "plos",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0356623"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "plos:neurology",
      "subfield": "neurology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Ending the single versus multi-bedroom debate: Hybrid rooms meet stroke rehabilitation needs",
  "title_text": "Ending the single versus multi-bedroom debate: Hybrid rooms meet stroke rehabilitation needs",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:56Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2zmzd7ersda5b",
  "venue": "PLOS One",
  "versions": []
}