Page 62 - Green Builder July-August 2020 Issue

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MEDICAL, HEALTHCARE AND MENTAL HEALTH
My professional architectural experience also includes healthcare
facility design where the entire purpose of the building is to create
spaces to administer, practice and address health issues. My projects
include a medical center in Palm Springs; a new hospital in the Middle
East; and serving as the architect for the design of a new Center Core
Building for the Veterans Administration in Menlo Park, Calif.
The VA hospital was for patients su ering from various physical
and mental health issues. Learning how to design for these
patients—and those persons caring for them—required a basic CREDIT: MIKE MOZART„FLICKR
understanding and appreciation for their experiences and how to
design environments that were healthy for everyone. It included not
introducing products, materials or design features that could make Leadership role. Corporations are taking the lead in helping builders design
their health worse. Increased safety precautions, including lighting, structures that address the mental health of occupants and caregivers,
„oor material, acoustics, air quality, doorways and views from the such as with the hosting of online construction discussions.
building, and products and materials, were all considerations. at the corporate level to employees’ mental and physical health was
On a return visit to the building years later, I met with a health impressive. Verizon, Genentech, the University of Southern California,
professional and we walked the building. He pointed out reasons and the Harvard Business Review were involved as participants and
he wanted to work there and had taken the job. He commented that moderator. The discussion included how mental and physical health
the views of the oak trees and redwood trees (which the supervising issues can a ect employee satisfaction and performance, and how
agency originally said “should be taken down to make room for the companies are learning about how to successfully deal with these
building”) from inside the building contributed to the satisfaction issues in the business environment during this time of shutdowns
of working in the building. He commented that the building seemed and health concerns. Designing green buildings with concern for
like a healthy, safe environment to practice medicine, and a good occupants’ satisfaction and performance is also a key goal.
environment for the patients. In addition, there is the related issue of more companies allowing
or requiring employees to work remotely, which in most cases is their
Clean living. homes. How this will a ect home projects (home o˜ces) as well as
Safe drinking the design of businesses, from o˜ces to stores to events buildings,
water helps keep is still evolving.
every home’s I am currently teaching an online class in the Global Architecture
occupant Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Architecture
healthy— (July-August Summer program). All of the students are “at home”
physically and due to the campus being shut down. We will be covering the e ect
mentally. of the current shutdown on the students’ academic careers, and in
the practice of architecture after their graduation. My students are
in mainland U.S., in Hawaii, and in Asia Pacišc locations. We will
take input from practicing architects from various global šrms as
guests. I’ll be sure to include what is learned in future articles of
Green Builder magazine.
These are not topics that have been commonly taught in architec-
CREDIT: SONSAM„ISTOCK can’t be picked up from construction experience alone. There are spe-
ture, engineering and construction management schools, and they
cialists and experts who can help us address these important issues
in our own work and in our own business practices. They may seem
new to green building projects in some ways, but the information
LEARNING FROM THE VOICES OF LEADING COMPANIES will serve to help us be even better at what we already do.
I enjoy bringing experience and practices from my non-residential I’ll continue to identify and involve specialists in the areas of mental
projects into my residential projects and vice versa. There are many health and šnancial health, as well as all of the other healthy green
things that may not be common practice in residential projects but building issues, to contribute to future articles about these important
are common in other building types, such as commercial, corporate topics and how they can apply to successful green building projects. GB
and larger building industry projects. Many of those issues are
helpful to consider in home projects. Terry Beaubois is an architect with years of experience in residential,
Recently, I sat in on an online discussion of corporate mental commercial, industrial and public buildings. He is the CEO of BKS:
health, “Mental Health at Work: Voices From Leading Companies.” Building Knowledge Systems, LLC (www.bksco.com/tbagbm). He may
Learning about the level of care and concern currently being exhibited be contacted at tbeaubois@gmail.com

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