Recently, my son’s girlfriend asked him to help her design and build a new “house” for her pet bird. After he assured her that he (and I) would be happy to help, he asked her this question: “WHY do you want this new house and how will it make your and your bird’s life better?” I was so proud I almost cried!
When it comes to Design Approach, so many times the discussion is around WHAT, HOW many, or WHEN? To me, the most important question is WHY.
I am so focused on understanding the WHY’s of my clients that I feel like a toddler sometimes. You prefer to have more double rooms than single? WHY? You like a decentralized nurse station? WHY? You prefer for the patients to eat all their meals off the unit? WHY?
I have seen enough projects that the odds are good that I already know why they want that, but as designers we should never assume that we understand our clients’ reasons. I want to know WHY, so that I can understand the depths of the client’s program. Every project should be a bespoke solution to maximize the effectiveness of the client’s treatment paradigm.
One of the things that makes hX unique is that we do not believe we know the answers to the profession’s big questions. We hear so many debates between architects over whether single rooms are better than double rooms. Or how nurse stations should be arranged. In our mind there is no right answer and therefore no wrong answer until the client’s ideal operational treatment program is fully understood.
The wrong answer is the one that is misaligned with the client’s vision. The right answer is the one that works for them. Clinicians are far more qualified to decide how to treat their patients than architects are. As consultants, our role is to challenge both Clinicians and Architects to bring design thinking to the whole question and dig deep enough to ensure that we first design the ideal treatment program and then design a physical environment that supports it.
As consultants, we are a bridge between design and clinical. The more we can challenge preconceived notions and facilitate better and deeper communication about key issues, the better the final result and the smoother the process.
