Architecture for Health: Architecture with Purpose
For those of us who attended the AIA Conference on Architecture 2017, held April 26-29 in Orlando, we heard from many inspiring architects who are designing architecture with purpose. AIA President Tom Vonier, FAIA led the message in his opening talk and in introductions of several keynotes.
What is architecture with purpose? Francis Kere showed how he created compelling architecture using primitive means to build schools, housing and community in the tiny African nation of Burkina Faso. Alejandro Aravena showed how he empowered a poor community in Chile by building half-completed homes, incentivizing residents to complete them. Michael Murphy of MASS shared how their research-based and expressive healthcare building designs also train construction skills to locals in Africa and Haiti.
Who would argue that we healthcare architects aren’t creating ‘architecture with purpose’? We create inspiring buildings that nurture patients, enable dedicated caregivers, and help healthcare institutions connect with their patients, all with creativity and innovation, much of it backed by rigorous research. In talking to many of you over the years, it repeatedly comes up that most of us (but not all) didn’t start out as healthcare architects, but that IT found US—somewhere along the line we ended up working on a health project, and it just grabbed hold of us—the sense of mission, of helping others, drew us in. We are a lucky lot, being able to both practice the art and science of architecture, and help others at the same time.
This brings me to celebrate the growing number of volunteers making the work of your Academy happen, that is, supporting all of us in creating healthcare architecture with purpose. This year, in addition to the 18 programs we had last year, we have added three more.
- Our new Outreach program, chaired by Georgeann Burns, is starting to follow many organizations in the healthcare industry to bring their knowledge, policy-making, and innovation to us. These include the American Hospital Association, National Institutes for Health, American College of Healthcare Executives, and many others.
- Our new Communications program, chaired by Kim Montague, builds upon our previous news-sharing through this newsletter, web page and social media to a whole new level—instead of one person doing this, we now have a committee of six. They are getting organized to dramatically increase the knowledge delivered to you, both from Outreach and other 20 AAH programs. Stay tuned—you will start to see the flow of knowledge increase in the coming months.
- Our new Reinvention program, led by AAH President-elect Vinnie Della Donna, will set loose a group of visionary healthcare leaders and emerging professionals to help us see the future of the Academy so we can work toward further relevance in the years ahead.
We now have 80 committee members, 16 committee chairs, and 9 Board members—that is 105 total! The Academy exists to support us all to create architecture with purpose. We can always do more with additional help, so if you are interested in becoming more of a change-maker, please contact us at aah@aia.org.
Sincerely,
Tom Clark, FAIA, EDAC
President, Academy of Architecture for Health