Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 74

Name: Alexa Copeland
School: Kent State University
Degree pursuing: Master of
Architecture, Master of Science
in Architecture and
Environmental Design
What drew you to this career? While we've
made strides recently in the healthcare design field,
I feel as designers we still get too focused on one
problem or potential outcome, like patient-centered
care or sustainability, and forget that these buildings
need to satisfy and promote not only patient health,
but environmental health, disease prevention, and
medical advancements. The increasing number of
features that we have to consider in the healthcare
field are thrilling and challenging and allow for continual self-growth.

Name: Asma Sanaee
School: Clemson University
Degree pursuing: Master of
Architecture and Health
What's one of the biggest issues you see the
industry facing in 2015? I believe architects in
the healthcare industry try to design efficiently,
and they don't consider creativity in their design
compared to general architects.
Share an idea you have for addressing or
overcoming that problem. For one of our studio
projects, we had to design a Federally Qualified

What's one of the biggest issues you see the
industry facing in 2015? The entangled facets
of technology and, more importantly, information
technology within the field. The problem posed is
the overdesign of utilized spaces, such as patient
and staff areas, and not enough focus on support
or service space. Design is a critical tool to control
operating cost, integrate many technological
programs, and promote rapidly growing healthcare
systems.
Share an idea you have for addressing or
overcoming that problem. I believe certain
modular or standardized healthcare facilities
would help and could be changed more easily
when new technologies are introduced, and for
a much lower cost. The use of EBD is already
making large impacts within the field, and I believe
in the years to come, it will be used not only for
patient care design possibilities but for the introduction of new technological trends and uses.

Health Center located on the Southern Wesleyan
University campus. The site had a residential setting,
and I wanted to keep that for the new center. Inspired
by the medical home concept, I applied three design
strategies to create the image of a home for the
community, including a gable roof structure, breaking
down the big block building into smaller ones, and
creating transitional space between the indoors and
outdoors. These design strategies helped harmonize
the new medical center with its residential context.
If you could change one thing about the
healthcare built environment, what would it
be? Applying more creativity in design and going
beyond fitting spatial programming into a box.

A gable roof
helped to
create a noninstitutional
appearance
for this design
proposal for
a Federally
Qualified
Health Center.

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Healthcare Design - November 2015

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