What is your background and research interests?
“I’ve been employed by Erasmus University Medical Centre for 34 years,” Liesbeth begins, “starting out as a management trainee.” Her education combines a bachelor’s degree in Facility Management with a master’s in Business Economics, and her early career placed her close to the Executive Board, first as an administrator and later as junior Board Secretary.
It was there she became involved in what would turn into a defining project: the redevelopment of the adult hospital built environment, including a recently merged tertiary cancer hospital. Established in 2001, the project ran for 20 years, comparable in scale and ambition to New Karolinska Solna and the New University Hospital in Malmö.
Liesbeth was part of the project’s management team and led an in‑house project management office within the real estate directorate. Her focus areas included organisation, stakeholder engagement, communication and PR, but a particular interest took centre stage: the patient perspective and the creation of healing environments using evidence‑based design.
In 2012–2013, she contributed to pre‑ and post‑occupancy studies on staff perceptions of the work environment, linked to the project’s design ambitions. This sparked a research interest that later resulted in a hospital‑funded, part‑time PhD position. And today, the 22 April 2026, Liesbeth will defend her thesis on stakeholder engagement in a transformative change process for a newly built hospital.
Being a generalist, I had to acquire a new skill set to find where our project and process could contribute to existing knowledge.
The complexity of large organisations and large capital investment projects, she adds, has always fascinated her.
What made you accept the invitation to come to Lund and work with this Theme – what’s in it for you?
Liesbeth first met members of the Theme in November 2024, when she was invited to present the Rotterdam project. Through European networks she already knew Peter Lanbeck and Göran Lindahl, and a tour of the Pufendorf IAS building – with the suggestion of a future stay – planted a seed.
Although I’ve been active in international networks, I hadn’t yet established international collaboration in research projects. This seemed like a real chance and a unique offer for a somewhat isolated junior researcher working in a real estate directorate.
Her stay in Lund also offered something increasingly rare: time. Time to learn from other hospital projects she had followed for years, and to revisit them after relocation. During her weeks in Sweden she gave lectures in Stockholm and Malmö, visited New Karolinska Solna with the main architect, explored the new University Hospital and the Memory Clinic roof garden in Malmö, and travelled to Göteborg and Helsingborg.
With Skåne University Hospital embarking on major projects in Helsingborg and Lund, it was particularly interesting to compare approaches and governance.
What do you think your main contribution to the Theme – or indeed Pufendorf IAS – will be?
Looking back on her five‑week stay in November/December, and ahead to another two weeks in May for the Theme’s finale, Liesbeth describes her contribution as rooted in practice.
“I hope I’ve contributed with my practice‑based experience and with the evaluation studies we conducted at Erasmus MC,” she says. In meetings around the region, she has tried to connect practical advice with possible research topics for the Theme.
There are already concrete outcomes. One is a presentation idea for the Architecture Research Care & Health (ARCH) conference in Göteborg in June, and another is a paper written together with Peter Lanbeck and Isabel Sanchez from the Malmö project. “So the first international research collaboration is already in place,” Liesbeth notes with evident satisfaction.
Have you had a chance to work on something else (apart from your contribution to the Theme) during your stay here in Lund?
Alongside Theme activities, Liesbeth has been busy writing. During her stay she worked on three conference abstracts: two for ARCH and one for European Healthcare Design in London.
Two of the abstracts are based on work with bachelor students from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. Over the past three years, Liesbeth has supported around 30 students with graduation projects within the Erasmus MC real estate directorate, organised as a Living Lab. Even while in Lund, she continued to coach students online as they completed their work.
The topics range from user experiences of rooftop gardens to facilities supporting Patient and Family Centred Care, including the design of a family room for a newly planned paediatric hospital at the Erasmus MC campus.
We’re proud of our Institute for Advanced Studies, but even marvellous things could be improved – any thoughts that could help us?
Liesbeth describes feeling genuinely welcome at Pufendorf IAS: from weekly Theme meetings and everyday kitchen conversations to festive moments during her stay.
There’s a profound luxury in having time and space to exchange stories. And then there was the Christmas party and the after‑party with dancing!
One moment stands out in particular: the day her thesis was approved. “It can be lonely sitting in a hotel room receiving such tidings,” she reflects, “but the Theme met the next day, and everybody shared their journeys to that same moment of relief.”
For Liesbeth van Heel, her time in Lund has been just that: shared journeys, shared reflection and the beginning of collaborations linking long practice with new research paths.
Good luck today, Liesbeth, and we look forward to welcoming you back to Pufendorf IAS in May!
Additional reading
The Theme Next Generation Healthscapes is one of three current Themes at the institute.
Link to the website about the Theme
Liesbeth van Heel is an international fellow. Her stays in Lund are made possible thanks to generous financing by the LMK Foundation, a foundation supporting multifaceted and integrative research.
Link to our website about International Fellows programme
We’re reading Liesbeth van Heel’s thesis right now. Perhaps you want to too?
Link to Erasmus University Rotterdam research portal.