health systems & design

Designing healthcare facilities in today’s world of accelerating change, uncertain economies and a growing population is the subject of this fall’s Architecture-For-Health lecture series at Texas A&M.

Shireen Kanakri, a Ph.D. architecture student at Texas A&M, will represent her native country, Jordan, as member of the International Union of Architects’ Public Health Group, an organization that promotes building design that contributes to patient healing.

The impact of acoustics on autistic students’ learning is being studied by Shireen Kanakri, a Ph.D. architecture student at Texas A&M. Planning and designing a classroom to address the auditory sensitivity of autistic students is critical, she said, but there has been little architectural research in this area.

Geoffrey Kornegay’s proposal for a network of community facilities in Mexico City, his final Masters of Architecture study project at Texas A&M, won “Best of the Best” honors at the Department of Architecture’s inaugural Celebration of Excellence.

Hailed as a renowned thinker, innovator and a longtime leader in the healthcare design community, Kirk Hamilton, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, was named to a national design magazine’s 2012 list of the Most Influential People in Healthcare Design.

A family-centered environment, healing gardens and lots of visual exposure to natural environments are features of a preliminary design for a new children’s hospital in Richmond, Va. created as a final study project for a Dallas-based architecture firm by Suyong Jin, a Master of Architecture student at Texas A&M University.

Environmental design student teams from Texas A&M swept a national design contest, winning first-, second-, and third-place awards, as well as honorable mention with plans for renovating a skilled nursing facility in Jacksonville, Florida.

Student-designed concepts imagining the future of health facility design education and research at Texas A&M University and the facilities to house those initiatives were showcased at the Langford Architecture Center in an April 25 public review.

Evidence-based design and eco-effective, or sustainable, design are fundamentally compatible despite some conflicts, concluded Mardelle Shepley, professor of architecture of Texas A&M, in a research paper she’s presenting this May at a conference in Beijing, China.

The Society of Counseling Psychology’s efforts to support psychologists, students and international and professional affiliates will be augmented by president-elect Michael Duffy, a Center for Health Systems and Design Faculty Fellow and professor emeritus of counseling psychology at Texas A&M.

Professional architects learned how to incorporate evidence-based design into healthcare projects at an April 12-14 “boot camp” sponsored by Texas A&M’s Center for Health Systems and Design.

As the 2012-13 WHR Architects Tradewell Fellow, Akshay Sangolli, a graduate Texas A&M architecture student, will work on some of the firm’s upcoming projects alongside some of the nation’s leading healthcare facility design professionals.

The effects of daylight on healthcare workers and the care they provide, and how that impacts operating costs at health facilities, are the focus of an award-winning investigation by Rana Zadeh, a Ph.D. architecture student at Texas A&M.

As the new director of the International Union of Architects Public Health Group, George J. Mann, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, said he will advocate heightened patient care, improved health care access and availability, and quality, affordable health facilities worldwide.

Texas A&M graduate architecture students impressed a design jury at a 2011 Nashville healthcare design conference with their concept to convert an antiquated public health facility to a holistic healing center for “everyday athletes.”