After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 389

Chapter 389: Importance of Users
Oslo looked at another sheet of paper, detailing different aspects of the building. Drawings like these were called section drawings, which was like making a clean cut along a building and then looking at it from that side.

From here, one could see how high the ceilings were and how space played according to height.

For instance, the ceilings were high for lobbies and common areas, which created a sense of openness. Hospital rooms, on the other hand, had half the ceiling height of the main lobbies. Because they had lower ceilings, they tended to create more sense of intimacy.

Ventilation was also controlled per area, both to provide air to the patients and also for ease of control in case of contagious diseases. If necessary, the air flow for certain parts of the buildings could be completely locked.

They called the several sections ‘isolation facilites’.

At first, he thought it was a prison-like section, which didn’t really strike him much because all bigger territories had some. These places were made to handle rabid patients who had good families, which meant they couldn’t easily get rid of them.

But he was very wrong.

In these so-called isolation facilities, the people who were ill would be separated from the rest, albeit in a way comfortable and humane. They would still have their own bathroom and source of food, designed in a way that no one who sent them food or assistance would catch the disease.

For certain harsher cases, walls were built up, to further isolate per individual.

He remembered the plagues that happened in his lifetime—especially the two most famous ones.

There was the Fire Plague about ten years ago where people smoked from their mouths, bodies burning from within. Anyone who smelled the smoke would be affected.

And then there was another plague that turned the inflicted completely blue. This happened in the sea cities back when he was a child and he heard a third of the population of these places perished.

These all happened far from him and none of the people he knew personally were affected. However, even after years, he could still hear of its effects and the damage they made.

In retrospect, the many plagues could’ve been contained simply with these facilities.

These were just a few of the things considered with the play of space.

In his previous knowledge, the floors were all the same height, with very minimal play of space. After all, it was the fastest layout they could think of. Who had the time to think of changes and innovation when there were so many other things to worry about?

They not only had to worry about monsters, but living in a society where power was key inevitably made people walk in eggshells.

For rare Level C and above architects, this could even be worse. Of course, this didn’t apply to every special professionals, but he knew sufficient enough cases to know that it wasn’t all sunshine and butterflies on the top.

Don’t think having special ability automatically granted financial freedom—it didn’t. This was especially true if they get attached to certain powers.

Oslo shook his head of the thoughts, resuming his studying of the creative works of art he so luckily had access to. He went back to the associated floor plans, reviewing the new rooms he learned about.

One of the previously-unknown functions was the surgery room. One of the architects helpfully described it in full detail, and even after so many times, he still couldn’t wrap his head around it.

He ended up staring at the rooms with a weird expression on his face.

Interestingly, the person drawing next to him saw his flabbergasted expression. He cleared his throat and pushed down his embarrassment.

“You mentioned people may need to get opened up to get healed.”

The (Terran) architect’s name was Santos. He was short and had tanned skin. He was a very distant cousin of Plaridel, though they weren’t very close. “Yes, that’s right.”

“Then how do they avoid the internal organs then?”

As someone who lived in this world, Oslo had naturally seen a lot of internal organs as well as their rough locations. Of course, this was mostly the organs being pulled out of the human body by monster teeth.

The concept of purposely opening up people to help them was admittedly quite confusing to him.

Santos paused in thought and told him what he knew. “They carefully move it out, fix the problem, and then put it back.” He said thai a matter-of-factly. “I think a lot of sucking and sewing are involved.”

If he hadn’t been fighting monsters brutally since young he’d have vomited.

He shook his head and moved on to the next observation (this was a daily habit of his because he realized he learned a lot from doing this, especially when he had an ‘expert’ next to him to ask questions to).

Anyway, other than those functions, the aesthetics for the hospitals was also considered. The building was designed with various light sources including natural light. It helped in mood and, in turn, the mood helped in healing.

It was still a wonder to him that mood and health were so intrinsically interrelated.

There were also gardens above the ground, which was similar to the sky gardens the lord introduced with the new custom buildings. These were ‘healing gardens’ and rooftop terraces.

Even until now, it was still a wonder to him how this was done so cleanly.

He had heard of hanging gardens before, but most of them were in mountains—using terraced farms—but never on actual built construction.

The hospital also used soothing colors—they called them pastel colors. The paint was finally created after various trial-and-error of the paint factory (another marvel). Although the colors were too soft for him, he could understand the rationale.

Finally, there was comfortable furnishing all around. Even waiting areas were ‘ergonomic’ as they would call it. They said all these had contribution to a healing environment. Even waiting rooms for the families were designed to be soothing.

Eventually, Oslo realized the designers were always thinking of the humans—the users—first and foremost.

Back then, nobody cared for the users like this. As long as the building was functional, then it was a good building.

“Any more questions, Master Gold?” Santos said with a smile, obviously enjoying his many child-like questions. Oslo’s lips twitched and shrugged.

“No, I was wondering how you guys decided to focus on the people rather than on the building.”

This made the tanned man blink a bit, musing. After a moment, he looked at Oslo to answer him. “It’s not really a matter of just ‘deciding’,” he said, “It’s a necessity. After all…

“What is a building if not for the people using it?”

Oslo felt like his brain opened up so many avenues, and his level took another step toward growth.