Finding Evidence of Culture

Sometimes I feel more like an archeologist than an architect, unravelling the culture of both a community and an organization each time I begin work on a project.  Evidence-Based design is a buzzword that has emerged in recent years, in the healthcare sector where I mostly work and play.   I like the idea that cause and effect of design can be studied and documented and help give us some road markers.  But I also think that you can misinterpret facts and fool yourself.  A lot.  Evidence-based design, while a valuable tool, only scratches the surface of what it takes to deliver a successful project, healthcare or otherwise. It represents intent in design and measures outcomes after completion, but fails to fully connect with the process of design.
Conventional design parameters such as aesthetic guidelines, programs or budgets often override the design intent.  Department interests can conflict with those of administration, budget concerns override design intentions, and the desires of the patient and visitor population are derived through speculation, word of mouth or limited questions on Press-Gainey surveys.  The process of design can be frustrated by these constraints.  The inability to tie design elements or strategies to larger desired outcomes for the healthcare organization as a whole then results in their being undervalued by healthcare clients. 

But what if as architects, we could forge a more relevant connection between the bottom line and making great spaces that  inspire, support and heal?

Are you an Opportunist?

An architect friend recently posted this philosophical question: "What matters more to you, process or outcome?"  I wanted to shout, "Both! Neither!" Then I realized that it comes down to whether or not you are an opportunist. 

I define opportunism most simply as the ends justifying the means.  However, this doen't make either the ends (outcome) or the means (process)  more important.  It just means that you are willing to take advantage of what situations present themselves and do whatever it takes to get what you want.

Opportunists take risks, opportunists leverage situations, opportunists are schemers and plotters.  They get what they want- at least in the short term.  I think that the pitfall of being an opportunist is that our world is so focussed on the immediacy of success.  Opportunists accept this premise defacto and can easily become addicted to orchestrating a short term success. Being an opportunist is makes you seem powerful, but you might just be building a house of cards if you forget to factor in that old economic principle of opportunity cost...Do you buy into that?

Taming the Many-Headed Monster

Let's face it as designers, we often get no respect.  Organizations already have their own standards and teams in place to address more parts of the project than you probably knew needed that close of a look.  Instead of being demoralized by the many headed monster that most corporate machine clients have become, try introducing some innovative management strategies to engage an organization's many project stakeholders in an integrated and productive way, allowing disparate concerns to be addressed without compromising sustainable goals or good design.

Get comfortable with the fact that there are multiple masters to serve with healthcare organizations and other large insitutional clients, each with their own set of design priorities for a particular project. From construction departments trying to enforce the bottom line to physicians concerned about cutting edge technology, infection control directors, facilities managers, security offices, CEO's concerned about market drivers and patient satisfaction, and perhaps even a sustainability officer struggling to be heard over all of the other voices. While there may be a desire to have an innovative or sustainable project, simply setting an executive level directive won't lead to the desired outcome. Reaching design goals depends you taking a leadersip role with an approach to design that integrates all of the voices influencing design priorities into a framework of sustainable design and operation:

1. Discuss specific ways to organize a project, map out sustainable goals that factor in divergent needs and cut through the red tape of complex projects to realize your green goals.
2. Establish deep and integrated sustainable approaches across the entire project team that create the buy-in and ownership necessary for true innovation.
3. Identify everyone who will be a stakeholder and engage them early. Be a conduit to foster communication among competing interests on a construction project.
4. Define sustainable project strategies that the entire team will buy into and work to develop
5. Learn how to look at cost in a multi-dimensional manner to avoid value engineering away your most economical and innovative sustainable components
6. Assess the organization's mission and goals and learn how they can relate to specific sustainable strategies that resonate with the entire staff.