In this podcast, Gordon Chong presents findings from the 2005 Latrobe Fellowship, which gave $100,000 to Chong Partners Architecture, Kaiser Permanente, and the University of California at Berkeley to do a research study on Multi-cultural Influences on the Design of a Healthcare Setting.

The grant, named for architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, is awarded biennially by the AIA College of Fellows for research leading to significant advances in the architectural profession. The 2005 research will involve an unusual collaboration of architect, client, and university to determine specific knowledge of how hospital design affects the recovery and healing for people of different cultures. It will combine traditional research with new applications to develop a model that architects and designers can apply to address cultural diversity in the design of any public building.

We greatly appreciate the AIA College of Fellows for selecting this project, said Gordon Chong, FAIA, founder and president of Chong Partners and project director, noting that his firm has a longstanding commitment to research-based design. We design and build our hospitals and other public buildings to last many years so we can’t afford to risk they will be obsolete before they are completed. Rather than experience and intuition, we in the design community need evidence-based knowledge about how design impacts behavior, perception, and outcomes of building users. Ultimately we believe the information we derive from this study will reshape the architectural profession as it works within today’s increasingly multicultural world, Chong added.

The role of research in architecture has been a central issue for a number of years and this Latrobe Fellowship gives us the opportunity to create and test a model of research for the profession, said Dr. W. Mike Martin, FAIA, team leader for UC Berkeley and professor and chair of the Department of Architecture. This study will give us credible evidence about how design is influenced by behavioral predictors that improve the patient experience and provide valuable knowledge to the healthcare industry.

Using integrated databases of information gathered from over 30,000 patients, they incorporated techniques from psychology, sociology and neuroscience to understand how spatial configurations, light, noise, and temperature can be designed to mitigate stress. Beginning with database research, followed by behavioral science and neuroscience measurement in several functioning patient units at Kaiser Permanente, this compares with intuitive/experiential information gained over the years by the study partners. The final phase is the development of programmatic guidelines that can inform the design of patient units. Kaiser hopes to implement these guidelines in its extensive building program and then continue to evaluate impacts on patient and staff well being.

According to Chong, It is important to the AIA that the results can be used by architects in work other than healthcare. To address this, the research team will monitor the model of collaborative research throughout the two-year process, assessing how each of the three organizations can add to the quality of the results. By linking scientific outcomes with how design is informed, cutting edge architectural studies such as these will hopefully prove applicable to reducing stress and maximizing efficiency and happiness in contexts as disparaging as schools, prisons, and even aquariums.

Please visit the Latrobe Fellowship. 

Please visit Chong Partners. With offices in San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego and London, Chong Partners Architecture provides strategic planning, urban design, architectural design, interior design and graphic design services to clients in healthcare, education, civic, institutional and commercial fields. The firm is distinguished by a community-based and knowledge-based practice that emphasizes the importance of design to build livable communities and to foster social, cultural and ecological values.

Please visit Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. Kaiser Permanente is America’s leading integrated health plan. Founded in 1945, it is a nonprofit, group practice prepayment program with headquarters in Oakland, California. Kaiser Permanente serves the health care needs of 8.2 million members in 9 states and the District of Columbia. Today it encompasses the not-for-profit Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and their subsidiaries, and the for-profit Permanente Medical Groups. Nationwide, Kaiser Permanente includes approximately 140,000 technical, administrative and clerical employees and caregivers, and more than 11,000 physicians representing all specialties. 

Please visit University of California Berkeley School of Architecture.  The architecture department is one of the premier educational programs in the world. It has been a leader in research and creative production that challenges normative practice and broadens the context of the discipline and professional arenas of architecture. It prides itself on being a department that integrates other design and planning disciplines as well as the larger comprehensive research and educational environment of the University of California, Berkeley campus as contributors to its educational, research and creative work mission and vision.

Please visit The Academy of Architecture for Health