Bushra Obeidat

• PhD. EDAC. Associate Professor
• Jordan University of Science and Technology

Urban open spaces are essential for enhancing social capital and supporting mental and psychological well-being, contributing significantly to the quality of life. This benefit has driven investors to create communal open spaces within gated communities, particularly in Jordan, where such spaces are limited. On the other hand, privacy is paramount...

The recognized impact of healthcare facility design on patient well-being prompted this investigation into the influence of design variables on patient satisfaction and length of stay (LOS) within a single-center oncology unit. A survey-based methodology was employed at King Abdullah University Hospital (KAUH) to gather data from 88 participants. T...

In the Irbid Governorate, Jordan, equitable healthcare facility distribution is vital to ensuring healthcare accessibility and improving public health outcomes. This study investigated the spatial distribution, accessibility, and conformity of healthcare facilities to the Ministry of Health standards to identify areas requiring improvement. Using g...

As more people increasingly inhabit indoor spaces, the importance of interior environment design has grown significantly. The focus of this research is to assess the air flow and air change per hour (ACH) within common service vertical circulation spaces in apartment buildings, emphasizing the potential role of these spaces in mitigating airborne i...

To promote the adoption of Direct Air Capture (DAC) systems, this paper proposes and tests a photovoltaic-powered DAC system in a generic residential building located in Qatar. The proposed DAC system can efficiently reduce CO2 concentration in a living space, thus providing an incentive to individuals to adopt it. The ventilation performance of th...

City branding is a new science of an ancient technique to achieve a competitive advantage for cities and increase attraction of investment, and tourism. Recently, due to the growing globalization, most cities worldwide and in Jordan have witnessed a remarkable change in their competitive structures. City planners have perceived need to create brand...

Architecture is a profession in a perpetual state of change. Thus, it is essential for students to have a solid research foundation on which they can apply their knowledge and evidence-based solutions to architectural design, to enhance the quality of the built environment. Despite the fact that students’ views and engagement in research have been...

Recent evidence available in the literature has highlighted that the high-energy consumption rate associated with air conditioning leads to the undesired “overcooling” condition in arid-climate regions. To this end, this study quantified the effects of increasing the cooling setpoint temperature on reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions to m...

Rural towns worldwide are undertaking tourism programs to diversify and revitalize their economies. Despite its natural, cultural, and historical tourist potential, Jordan is not a top agritourism destination. This research examines the possibilities for agritourism in an agricultural village in Jordan that has not yet embraced it. The research inv...

Interactions between humans and animals benefit human health and well-being. There has been little study on the effects of bird encounters on people. This study addresses this conceptual gap by analyzing the results of a between-subjects experiment with 136 undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to experience one of four 360 stereo panor...

The use of human figures throughout the design process enables designers to experience, communicate, and evaluate design concepts. Earlier studies of architectural representation sought to identify the relationship between the tools and techniques of representation and how individuals perceive architectural scenes. Nonetheless, the effect of virtua...

Various studies have addressed the issue of privacy and referred to its critical role in shaping the spatial organization and functional configurations of buildings. Residents of public housing projects tend to modify their homes to achieve different functional and occupancy objectives. While the variables that motivate tenants to alter their spati...

House is a socio-cultural milieu that is strongly connected to its residents’ lifestyles; thus, any change in their way of living could be reflected in its layout. This research aimed to highlight the impact of socio-cultural factors on the internal layout of public housing residences, especially with the absence of a clear policy that defines the...

Agritourism is gaining growing recognition in both developed and developing countries. In developing countries, it is considered as an instrument, not only for sustainable rural development but also for local community poverty alleviation. Al-Baqura is an important agricultural village in the north of Jordan. In 2019, Jordan retrieved control over...

Background Nurses’ work environment has apparent implications for maximizing their productivity, satisfaction, and improving patient care. Objectives This study aimed to explore the influences of three nursing unit spatial layouts on critical care nurses’ satisfaction and walking behavior at a university hospital. Methods The research used a comp...

Background The critical conditions of intensive care patients require providing them with a higher acuity of care. Thus, it is essential to focus on critical care nurses and improve their work environment in a way that maximizes productivity, collaboration, satisfaction, and leads to improved patient care. Purpose This study aims to explore the ro...

Emergency departments (EDs) in hospitals are hotspots for highly transmissible infec-tious diseases and pose the most significant risk of viral infection spreading. With the recentCOVID-19 outbreak, it became clear that emergency department design must evolve in order tobe adequately prepared to handle the epidemic. The purpose of this research is...

Many organizations are rethinking and redesigning their work environments by moving out from traditional offices to shared team spaces that promote teamwork and collaboration. This study explores communication ties in co-working spaces through a comparative study on Jordanian workplaces and their US counterparts. The study employed spatial analysis...

Hospital emergency departments (EDs) are hubs for highly transmissible infectious diseases, posing the highest risk of viral infection transmission. With the current COVID-19 outbreak, it has become clear that the ED design needs to be altered in order to be successful in containing the pandemic. The purpose of this study is to use a computational...

Emergency departments (EDs) in hospitals are hotspots for highly transmissible infectious diseases and pose the most significant risk of viral infection spreading. With the recent COVID-19 outbreak, it became clear that emergency department design must evolve in order to be adequately prepared to handle the epidemic. The purpose of this research is...

Wind towers are passive architectural elements traditionally used to ventilate buildings in the Middle East’s hot and arid regions. Some recent design initiatives in Jordan are particularly interested in using passive systems for natural ventilation. This paper focuses on an innovative wind tower design as a passive ventilation system, which will b...

The preservation of the industrial heritage has been a common practice in a number of cities worldwide. These buildings/sites represent the biggest and most visible symbols of the great industrial past, and serving as monuments of social and cultural identities. The aim of this paper is to preserve and sustain of traditional watermills in Wadi Orja...

Background Healthcare organizations are moving their primary care teams out of private offices into shared workspaces for many reasons, including teamwork improvement and cost reduction.Objective Identify the specific aspects of layout and design that enable two fundamental processes of high-functioning teams: communication and situation awareness....

This study explores the relationships of campus quad design and layout with students’ static activities focusing on gender differences. Students’ static activities were observed at 8914 locations during 390 rounds of observation in six campus quads of a Middle Eastern university. The design and layout data of the quads were collected in the field,...

Background: Traditional clinic design supports a high-volume, hierarchical practice model. New design models are evolving to foster a high-functioning team delivery model. Purpose: The goal of this study was to determine whether new design models, specifically colocation, improve care team development. Methodology/approach: A quasi-experimenta...

In recent years, the reuse of built industrial heritage like old factories and mills has been a common practice in a growing number of cities around the world. These buildings/sites represent the biggest and most visible symbols of the great industrial past, as well as serve as monuments of social and cultural identities. This work is established o...

Many organizations are rethinking and re-imagining their work environments by understanding their employees’ needs and aspirations, with the intention of creating better work-spaces that promote employees’ health, happiness, and well-being. The basis for our work is an evaluation study of six workplaces in Jordan to identify aspects of the layout a...

Shifting economies, politics, and humans thirst for a modern life have all caused the abandon of impressive architectural and urban sites in Jordan. These sites include traditional settlements, vernacular houses, and urban landscapes that are constantly under the threat of urbanization and negligence by the government and the local communities alik...

By applying sustainable design solutions, healthcare facilities can improve the quality of the built environment and achieve greater customer satisfaction, with higher productivity at reduced costs. Thermadapt is an adaptive material designed as an external layer attached over a building façade. It acts as a light-redirecting device to improve indo...

It is recognized that ambient air temperatures (T a) inside urban cores are higher than that in their rural surroundings, forming what is known as the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon. During the summer in hot and dry regions, the UHI intensity is significantly influenced by the extreme direct solar radiation and leads to outdoor thermal discomfo...