Upcoming Conference: Healthcare Design 09

Image of dogwood leaves courtesy of Henry Domke
Healthcare Design 09 is probably the largest national conference addressing the intersection of healthcare and design. It is founded and produced by the Center for Health Design (CHD) in association with the American Institute for Architects (AIA) and the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). CHD’s focus is primarily for architects, but there’s plenty for landscape architects and designers to sink their teeth into. I can’t go this year, but if I could, here are some of the sessions I’d be attending:
  • A Practitioner’s Guide to Evidence-Based Design
  • Environmental Influences That Improve Outcomes: Biophilic Healthcare Design (Roger Ulrich)
  • Participatory Contextual Research for Ambient Experience Design of Healthcare Facilities
  • The Scandinavian Example – Four Different Projects and Patient Focus
  • Do Positive Distractions Influence Human Behavior? A Study of Pediatric Patients in Two Waiting Areas
  • Incorporating Labyrinths as Components of Optimal Healing Environments
  • An Overview of Recent Psycho-Social Research on Environments for Seniors
  • The Role of Sustainability in Creating Healing Environments
  • TAMU First Look Colloquium: Active Living Environments
  • Experiment to Study How Nature Images Impact Physiological and Psychological Responses to Pain
  • Green Roofs for Existing Hospitals – A Case Study
  • Healing Gardens and Horticultural Therapy – Creating Outdoor Environments for Healing
And these are Facility Tours I’d be interested in attending:
  • Tampa General Hospital Bayshore Health Pavilion: Hospital has a “landscaped internal courtyard.”
  • Shands Hospital – University of FL: “The hospital was designed around a ‘Central Park’-style healing garden, where a water feature leads patients and families to the main entry.”
  • Florida Hospital – Altamonte: “The new lobby and chapel are surrounded by a reflecting pool and haling garden.”
For those of you who are going, please report back! More landscape architects need to be involved with CHD, for our and their sake and – most importantly – for the benefit of patients, family members, and health practitioners who occupy the indoor and outdoor spaces we help design.