by Shane Henson — August 29, 2011—The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) announced it has selected the recipients of the AIA National Healthcare Design Awards program. The AIA Healthcare Awards program showcases the best of healthcare building design and healthcare design-oriented research. Projects exhibit conceptual strengths that solve aesthetic, civic, urban, and social concerns as well as the requisite functional and sustainability concerns of a hospital.
Three healthcare facilities were selected in two categories: Built and Unbuilt.
Seattle Children’s Bellevue Clinic (SCBC) in Bellevue, Washington, designed by NBBJ, won in the Built category.
The clinic provides outpatient surgery, imaging, urgent care and more than 15 specialty services. Using continuous process improvement (CPI) and integrated project delivery (IPD) methods allowed the client, design, and construction teams to program more service in less space and build it more effectively. Intended to serve lower acuity patients, the facility was designed with flexibility, efficiency and patient, family and staff experience in mind. Moving to a dual-circulation model improved efficiency for the staff while offering a healthier, more pleasant experience for the patients. Through a conscientious effort at increasing room efficiency and minimizing travel distances, the design effort achieved a 27 percent space savings, fitting 110,000 square feet of program into 80,000 square feet. This savings was achieved without sacrificing the patient experience or the improved processes.
The UCLA Outpatient Surgery and Oncology Center in Santa Monica, California, designed by Michael W. Folonis Architects, won in the Unbuilt category.
This project is a hybrid academic and community outpatient surgery, oncology treatment and medical office facility. The design concept asserts that a more natural and less clinical environment promotes healing in patients and alert, productive behavior in doctors, staff and students. Taking advantage of climate and site conditions, the architects sought the maximum inclusion of natural daylighting and ventilation throughout the building, and an enhanced indoor-outdoor connection. They designed the building employing these principles using a California Modernist vocabulary. The design concept is inspired by the belief that Modernism, with its adherence to passive solar design, is the ideal means to realize the high standards of sustainability in healthcare design.
The First People’s Hospital in Foshan City, Quangdong Province, China, designed by HMC Architects, also won in the Unbuilt category.
The goal of the design is to translate advanced Western hospital ideas to accommodate Chinese local practices. On the medical planning side, the design concept challenges the way this region’s healthcare facilities have been designed in the recent past. Some of these challenges include obscured points of access, lack of clarity in campus organization, unappealing introverted campuses, ill-planned public spaces, difficult wayfinding, and a general lack of patient healing experience. In addition, there is little infrastructural planning for infection control in time for a major epidemic outbreak. On the architecture side, the project is designed to best accommodate the local construction technology and practices that are incremental in its planning. The campus is organized into distinct parts to allow incremental growth. A kit-of-parts approach to exterior and interior systems was developed to be replicated throughout the campus to minimize construction confusion and allow for fast-track construction.
Facilities managers working in healthcare facilities that showcase the best of healthcare building design—like those honored this year through the AIA National Healthcare Design Awards—likely find that the architectural initiatives taken to optimize space management and operational efficiency and provide a more positive environment for patient comfort and healing in these facilities also optimize the work experience for the facilities team, and benefit staff health and comfort as well.
