| From the Inside Out |
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Gaining expertise in your client's industry not only keeps you focused on the bottom line, it also makes you a better designer.
By Judi Ketteler
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| Photography by Ryan McVay/Getty Images |
As a designer, you make it your business to
know your business - whether it’s the latest CAD application, the
newest product launch or up-and-coming competitors. But how much effort is made
to truly understand the ins and outs of your client’s business? While designing a hospital
doesn’t necessitate knowing how to use a scalpel, it does mean that during each
stage of the design process, designers should be able to see things through the eyes of
surgeons, nurses, maintenance workers and administrators.
Designers must have their fingertips on the pulse of the industries in which they work.
“You should always be able to put yourself inside your client’s shoes and make sure you
understand what is happening inside these spaces you’re designing,” says Andrea Hyde,
AAHID, ASID, President of Hyde Inc., a healthcare interior design firm in Baltimore.
Here, Perspective takes an in-depth look at what’s happening in the healthcare, education
and finance industries - and what those trends mean for today’s designers.
HEALTHCARE:
Life-Changing Business
When
it comes to healthcare design, “it is brain surgery,” Hyde
says. It’s not simply that
the decisions designers make can affect patient outcomes. Today’s hospitals operate
on such tight budgets, there is simply no room for mistakes or redesigning to
meet strict code requirements that may have been overlooked the first time around.
“There are critical, life-saving things happening in this building that don’t happen
in other places,” Hyde says. Designers need a basic understanding of those things -
what happens in each department and how a patient travels through the system, for
example - so they can help clients make the best decisions.
To do that, designers should attend healthcare conferences, read industry journals,
meet with product representatives and continuously interact with clients, says Louise
Nicholson Carter, IIDA, AAHID, Principal with Carter Design Associates in Houston.
Her firm also hosts “lunch and learns” for its healthcare employees to stay up-to-date
on industry happenings.
Currently, three trends are prominent in the healthcare industry:
Facilities now walk a fine
line between healthcare and hospitality. Stark
clinical environments are a thing of the past,
Hyde says. It’s becoming
a buyer’s - or patient’s - market. The U.S. healthcare industry will spend about
$20 billion by the end of the decade on construction to update facilities and
attract the large aging boomer population. But aesthetics are only one component.
Products must not only stand up to wear and tear, they must be affordable to
maintain and meet standards for infection control. “Clients may not know what
they need, they just know if it’s not working,” Hyde says.
According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing,
by 2020, the United States will be 340,000 registered nurses short of what’s needed.
And across the world, 57 countries are facing severe shortages of healthcare workers,
the World Health Organization reports. “Hospitals will have to function with less staff,
so the design needs to be that much more efficient,” Hyde says. Designers must understand
how nurses and other healthcare professionals interact with each other and with
patients, and create spaces that make staff more functionally effective. Designers must
provide “better lunch rooms, meditation spaces, nice outdoor retreats where [staff] can
get away for a few moments, paging systems and ergonomically supportive work environments,”
Nicholson Carter says.
It’s no surprise the world’s population is aging. The U.S. Department
of State reports currently 500 million people are age 65 and older, accounting
for 8 percent of the world’s population. But according to a 2006 study by the Center for
Studying Health System Change, the rising number of older Americans will play a small
role in growing demand for inpatient hospital care during the next decade. Between
2005 and 2015, the aging population will increase use of inpatient services by just 0.74
percent each year, or 7.6 percent over the 10-year period. The report suggests local population
trends and medical technology advances will be much more important.
EDUCATION:
Keeping
Pace
Both K-12 and higher education
are in the midst of a building boom. According
to the 2007 Construction Report by School Planning & Management magazine,
U.S. school construction completed in 2006 totaled more than $20 billion.
Although that’s a 7 percent drop from record-breaking 2005 levels, it’s the sixth
year in the last seven in which construction exceeded $20 billion. The report
says 2007 levels are expected to be even higher. And colleges and universities
from Rhode Island to California are investing in new and renovated facilities
to replace outdated ones and attract top educators and students.
Whether designing a college campus expansion or a new elementary school,
design professionals need to understand the challenges facing teachers and
administrative staff, as well as what makes students tick. Designers should consider
four emerging trends in the world of education:
“Now, it’s about collaborative learning versus a
didactic approach,” says Carl Price, AIA, Principal with architecture, interior
design and engineering firm RNL Design in Phoenix. In higher education,
this means rethinking those large, austere lecture halls. Large spaces
are still needed, but it’s more about integrating break-out spaces and
smaller seminar rooms in creative ways. It’s the same tune in K-12
schools. “Educators are embracing the idea that students can learn from
each other,” says Kevin Holm, AIA, Director of Educational Design for
LHB Corp., an architecture, interior design, landscape design and engineering
firm in Duluth and Minneapolis, Minn.
Colleges and universities have realized the importance of
spaces for social interaction among students - comfortable study areas, cafes
and rooms dedicated to open use. “These are no longer just leftover spaces. We’re programming and planning for them,” Price says.
“We’re seeing a dramatic change in housing,” Holm
says. Today’s students are less likely to have grown up sharing rooms with
siblings, and they’re not as keen to share bedrooms once they get to college.
This means rethinking dorm rooms and building more apartment-style
housing with privacy. The real challenge for designers is to make these
spaces impressive enough to attract students, while keeping their finite
budgets in mind.
Creating secure facilities is a definite concern in K-12
schools, albeit a sometimes controversial one, Holm says. Some institutions
request glazing on classroom doors, for instance, to allow passive observation
by teachers and administrators from corridors. On the flip side, in the event of
an emergency in which an armed individual is roaming the hallways, he or
she would be able to see into classrooms and take aim. It’s up to designers to
work with administrators to negotiate the safest, most creative design solutions.
FINANCIAL:
A
Custom Approach
Progressive and highly productive banking designs that can significantly
enhance ROI must project the individual bank’s culture, process, business
model and brand experience, says Paul Seibert, Vice President of Financial
Services for EHS Design in Seattle, a firm that designs retail branches and
headquarters for banks and credit unions. “You have to understand beyond
what the client tells you they think they want,” he says.
With designs like Washington Mutual’s Occasio retail banking approach -
featuring circular layouts in lieu of high counters and teller windows - in the
limelight, banking clients may be tempted to replicate someone else’s brand.
“But you can’t just transport one brand’s design onto another. It won’t work,”
Seibert says. It’s up to the designer to understand how an individual bank operates,
not only to help improve the client’s bottom line, but also to protect them
against theft.
Three industry initiatives stand out:
It may have taken the financial world a little longer to catch
up with the design boom, but by and large, staid-looking bank branches that
cling to last century’s model of banking are quickly fading. “Banks are realizing
they are a retail store. They sell products,” says Paul Kegel, President of
Kegel + Associates in Palm City, Fla., a firm that specializes in bank branch
design. Banking is more competitive than ever. Designers need to work with
banking clients to know what kind of retail-oriented displays, graphics, lighting
and finishes will help attract and retain target customers.
Poor bank design can mean increased robberies -
and good design can dramatically reduce them. In response to an increased
number of bank robberies, Special FBI Agent Larry Carr in 2006 developed the
SafeCatch concept, whereby bank employees create an uncomfortable climate
for potential thieves while providing customer attention and personalized
service. “These two processes are parallel,” says Seibert, who worked with
Carr to develop the architecture that supports the method. “It’s all about the
path into and out of the bank.” The approach teaches bank employees to recognize
and address all customers as they enter, especially unfamiliar visitors.
The goal in branch banking used to be to get customers
out as quickly as possible. “Now, banks want to build and maintain a
relationship with you from the minute you enter,” Kegel says. However, designers
need to understand that it’s less about spending time with tellers and more
about interfacing with products. Today’s banks operate more on a concierge
model - a person at a central kiosk who helps customers shop and complete
transactions, often using remote teller stations. Designers are challenged with
staying on top of emerging technology that makes this possible, as well as
structuring the space to foster relationship banking, Kegel says.
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