HCD Guest Author

Over dinner recently, a colleague who’s the CEO of a health system that just completed a hospital replacement project said something that made me think about our responsibilities as architects. “You [architects] are so good at describing architectural ideas and concepts, and it’s all cool stuff. And as the owner, I want that cool stuff.  But you sometimes have a way of making that cool stuff sound like it’s free—but it’s not,” he said.

His statement, while anecdotal and somewhat humorous, has stuck with me ever since.

Building Information Modeling continues to grow in popularity in architecture, engineering, and construction industries as healthcare projects continue to grow in size and complexity. Here are some reasons to consider BIM for your next project.

In a recent conversation with Jason Schroer, director of the Houston office of HKS, he posed an interesting question that made me think deeply about research in healthcare design and, in particular, evidence-based design. He drew a parallel between our field and the popular Animal Planet show Finding Bigfoot.

In the first installment of this series, I discussed some of the unique attributes of Millennials that are shaping the way we design healthcare environments. Let’s now consider the role this generation plays as patients.

In the past, we’ve learned about hospital design in China from the surface only. It’s been perceived that design decisions are made based on social, cultural, and economic drivers—or, simply, based on how it’s always been done. In actuality, the reasons for design decisions are deeper. Hospital design in China is logical and pragmatic, and often based on passive green design.

For example, a few characteristics of such Chinese design approaches that you might be familiar with include: