by HCD Guest Author | Jun 30, 2005 | News
Behind the heart of every medical facility lies its backbone—its structure. Like a human skeleton, it supports the building and protects the circulation systems within. As structural engineers, our basic function is to create structural systems that respond to a...
by HCD Guest Author | Jun 30, 2005 | News
Rising like a jungle of verdant flora out of the escalator lobby and above the open mezzanine of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Ambulatory Clinical Building’s second floor reception area, a new sculpture burgeons—a myriad of lush, leaflike forms that, although...
by HCD Guest Author | Apr 30, 2005 | News
Some of the most spectacular hospitals ever conceived were built more than 80 years ago for treating tuberculosis. From the great TB hospitals of Europe, such as Alvar Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium in Finland, to the modest “cure cottages” of the Adirondacks, the...
by HCD Guest Author | Apr 30, 2005 | News
The healthcare environment, physically and operationally, is in a constant state of transformation—learning from the “recent past” and building on the “just passed.” One significant development in the 1990s was the advent of the universal patient room, a concept that...
by HCD Guest Author | Apr 30, 2005 | News
The biggest trends in healthcare are the biggest trends in healthcare interior design: patient safety, wireless technology, and hospitality. They all rely on interior design solutions early in the process to be successful. If you’re a hospital stakeholder...
by HCD Guest Author | Apr 30, 2005 | News
Lesson 2: Make the Experience Personal “The Experience Architecture Forum at Harvard,” the notice read to my as yet disbelieving eyes. And then this: “Experience Architecture applies what we have learned from 150 years of world’s fairs, guest venues, and the...
by HCD Guest Author | Apr 30, 2005 | News
“Run until apprehended” is the mantra of a new hospital project I am involved with. The CEO is not reckless—just the contrary, actually. He is a thoughtful, provocative, and inspiring leader. The goal behind this slogan is to not have the team fall prey to the...
by HCD Guest Author | Apr 30, 2005 | News
3Smoke evacuation sounder System Sensor’s new ExitPoint sounder uses Directional Sound to identify escape routes leading to perimeter exits in the presence of smoke. ExitPoint, fitted in conjunction with normal building evacuation sounders, offers a way to draw...
by HCD Guest Author | Apr 30, 2005 | Trends
I recently stumbled across a book in my library, Form Follows Fiasco, by AIA-award–winning architectural critic Peter Blake. Writing during the mid-1970s, Blake discusses “The Fantasy of Purity”—how some of the sleek creations of the International Style, such as Le...
by HCD Guest Author | Apr 30, 2005 | News
“What? How can you even suggest that we need additional beds! We are only operating at 65% occupancy. The Board will think I'm crazy to even think about increasing our bed capacity, given such a low overall occupancy rate,” says the anonymous...
