Cystic fibrosis (CF) is just one of many life-threatening respiratory conditions requiring long-term antibiotic treatment.

Antibiotics may suppress infections without eliminating them, giving rise to colonisation by antibiotic resistant bacteria (AMR). These infections become highly transmissible between and amongst people with CF, making social contact a source of acute concern.

Infection prevention therefore increasingly depends on attempts to build containment and segregation (of people and pathogens) into the practices and material design of the CF world. And yet, there are significant variations in the way lung infection clinics materially perform segregation and containment within the transitional and liminal space of the built environment. Clinics have much to learn from each other, and much to offer the wider clinical community in limiting AMR.

Our research compares the way three outpatient lung infection clinics attempt to control AMR and cross-infection through the design, practices and architectural layout of their built environments. It seeks to learn lessons from this to limit AMR in wider healthcare settings.

The PARC project has been designed in close collaboration with our three partner CF clinics. This highlights the different material and design approaches taken to preventing AMR.

PARC is intended to benefit people with CF, the wider respiratory healthcare community, healthcare designers, architects and policy makers.