MARCH/APRIL 2011
Spotlight on Recent Graduate, Laura Garcia, as She Discusses Her Senior Project
Recent graduate, Laura Garcia, has a personal story about why she is particularly interested in health care design and what led her to focus her final studio project in her senior project course at Design Institute on biophilic design. She told us that the inspiration for her design came from an experience she had when her daughter was hospitalized for 3 days and 3 nights.
For Laura, the hospital stay experience was less than desirable due to the poor design of the hospital, lack of natural ventilation, artificial lighting, and cramped spaces. The bed she was provided with was actually a recliner and by the time she left she felt sick. Not only because of what she experienced with her daughter, but truly due to the conditions of the space. She felt her body had bad circulation and everything hurt.
When the opportunity to design this project arose, she began developing her concept by picturing herself as patient, staff member, and as a guest of a patient. She wanted to create a facility where burn rehabilitation patients would really feel safe. She wanted spaces for socialization but also privacy since there are many emotional and physical considerations when working with burn victims. To achieve this result Laura immersed herself in "intensive research from the beginning and continued it throughout the design phases. The research involved a lot of interviews and case studies. If I couldn't find an answer I just kept looking!"
Laura chose biophilic design principals to drive the project which focuses on keeping the patient connected to nature. Her research showed that this helps the patient heal faster, reduce stress, and enhance emotional and social functioning. While researching biophilic design Laura discovered the multiple ways to incorporate it such as using natural shapes and forms in the space plan, selecting natural finishes and furnishings, and exploring various opportunities for the patient to interact with nature either passively or directly.
In her design, Laura was also able to bring in environmental design issues by examining the actual proposed site to drive the design and to take into consideration the wind zones using the orientation of the building to capture the calm natural breeze. She was also able to incorporate the sun path to drive aspects of the space plan and the location of windows. When selecting the finishes and furnishings, their stewardship to the earth, performance and anti microbial characteristics were researched.
The culmination of the project was to present to a jury of professionals. Laura described this process as "a little bit intimidating at first but given the quality of the critic, it really enriches you. It makes you better because they give you real constructive critism and they make you see things that you may have thought about but dismissed and they show the importance of those thoughts." She enjoyed the real world experience of presenting to fellow professionals and learning how to benefit from that critique. When asked how she felt about her project Laura responded, "I am very proud of myself. It was a fun and hard project and I learned a lot. I feel that because it was self guided, I really pushed myself further."
We asked Laura to share her parting reflections regarding her education at DI... "I feel very prepared. I've tried to always go above and beyond. The teachers really push us. They try and make us go even further than we think we can. That has inspired me to always push myself a little further and think outside the box and come up with creative solutions in every possible way. And most importantly I've been given the skills to use research. I will always keep that with me."