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The AIA College of Fellows Awards 2005 Latrobe Fellowship to Chong Partners, Kaiser Permanente, and University of California at Berkeley
$100,000 Grant Will Fund Research to Examine the Link between Healthcare Facility Design and Faster Healing Rates in Patients
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For Immediate Release |
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Washington, D.C., August 2,
2005 — The American Institute of Architects (AIA) College of Fellows
has awarded its 2005 Latrobe Fellowship of $100,000 to Chong
Partners Architecture, Kaiser Permanente, and the University of
California at Berkeley for a research study on “Multi-cultural
Influences on the Design of a Healthcare Setting.” The
research will incorporate techniques from psychology, sociology and
neuroscience, building on the 2003 Latrobe Fellowship to the
Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture that studied how the human
brain perceives architecture at the biomedical level.
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.
The selection jury for the 2005 Latrobe Fellowship included Jury
Chair and 2003 AIA Topaz Medallion Recipient Marvin J. Malecha,
FAIA, as well as 2002 AIA Gold Medalist Michael Graves, FAIA, John
Hartray, FAIA, John Zeisel, PhD, and Lawrence J. Leis, FAIA. The
group convened at Graves’ office in Princeton, N.J. for their
discussion and deliberation.
“I was so honored to sit on this jury and have a chance to
review the proposals that came in for this year’s Latrobe
Fellowship,” said Malecha. “Research and scientific
discovery are so important to the growth and future of the
profession. When completed, the collaborative research proposed by
Chong Partners on healthcare facilities will provide architects
with a greater body of knowledge, enabling the design of buildings
that are inherently better for the health, healing, and safety of
the people in them. It brings us one step closer to a time when our
intuition will be supplemented by scientific evidence. Research is
the means, and in the end this is all about better and more
functional design for all building types.”
“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.
“Kaiser Foundation Health Plans and Hospitals are in the midst
of one of the largest building programs in the history of American
health care. With this program, we have a one time opportunity to
profoundly impact the care experience for our diverse membership in
these new facilities. The Latrobe Fellowship is one of the many
efforts we have underway to think through every design element,
color, material, and piece of equipment to make sure they work
together to create an
environment of reassurance and care,” says Christine Malcolm,
Senior Vice President of Hospital Strategy and National Facilities
Services for Kaiser Permanente.
Kaiser Permanente’s commitment goes well beyond the initial
research phase, according to Barbara Denton, National Facilities
Services Team Manager and Kaiser Permanente Latrobe team leader.
Kaiser Permanente will provide $15,000 in additional funding and
$200,000 of in-kind support covering mockup design and
construction, medical staff, lab and research support, focus groups
and more. It also will offer access to its data from other research
projects as well as the participation of its
medical staff. Pilot studies of the research will continue after
the duration of the two-year Latrobe grant.
"We are honored to be recipients of the Latrobe Fellowship," said
Ron Knox, vice president and chief diversity
officer at Kaiser Permanente. "The partnership that will form
between UC Berkeley, Chong Partners Architecture and Kaiser
Permanente symbolizes the critical role that facility design plays
in creating a warm, welcoming and supportive environment for our
members, and its importance in facilitating access to care. By
viewing every aspect of the care experience from our members'
cultural perspectives, we are better able to provide superior,
culturally informed care and service."
“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.”
The study will begin with data base research to be followed by
behavioral science and neuroscience measurement in several
functioning patient units at Kaiser Permanente. This will be
compared with intuitive/experiential information gained over the
years by the study partners. The final phase will be 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.”
Other members of the project team include Robert Brandt, AIA, team
leader for Chong Partners, and research experts, Dr. Eve Edelstein,
FAAA, Chong Partners; Dr. Robert Mangel, Kaiser Foundation; and Dr.
Galen Cranz, UC Berkeley. Additional Kaiser Permanente team members
are: Dave Newhouse, MD, MPH, Assistant Physician-in-Chief, Fremont
Medical Center/GSAA; John Kouletsis, Director, National Facilities
Services, National Director of Planning and Design Services; Katie
Holmes, Service Enhancement Leader, Northern California; Abelardo
Ruiz, National Facilities Services, Sr. Project Manager, Care
Environment, and Gayle Tang, Director, National Diversity, National
Linguistic and Cultural Programs.
About The American Institute of Architects
Since 1857, the AIA has represented the professional interests of
America’s architects. As AIA members, more than 70,000
licensed architects and allied professionals express their
commitment to excellence in design and livability in our
nation’s buildings and cities. Members adhere to a code of
ethics and professional conduct that assures the client, the public
and colleagues of an AIA-member architect’s dedication to the
highest standards of professional practice. For more information:
www.aia.org
About 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. For more information:
www.chongpartners.com
About 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. For more information: www.kaiserpermanente.org
About 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. For
more information, www.ced.berkeley.edu.
Note to Editors: For additional information please
contact Robert Brandt, director of integrated services, Chong
Partners, 415.946-6722 or rbrandt@chongpartners.com or Cara
Battaglini, AIA media relations, 202.626.7462 or
carab@aia.org
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