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AIA Awards Healthcare Design

Projects are located in Asia and the U.S.

Mairi Beautyman -- Interior Design, 8/20/2008 12:00:00 AM

Stark, institutional healthcare design is becoming a thing of the past. To honor the new trend in design excellence in healthcare building design and health design-oriented research, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) has launched the AIA National Healthcare Design Awards. Four projects take top prizes this year.

Cha Women & Children’s Hospital, Bun Dang GuSeongNam, South Korea
Completed by KMD Architects, this new, light-filled hospital is one of the first in the country equipped with standard U.S. facilities, such as a labor and delivery room and water birthing.

The Peter and Paula Fasseas Cancer Clinic at University Medical Center North, Tucson, Arizona
CO Architects was inspired by the desert landscape for this comprehensive cancer clinic. Staff benefits from three courtyards and extensive views of the region's natural beauty.

Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Shenzhen, China
Designed by TRO Jung|Brannen, the Third People's Hospital is just the right mix of traditional Chinese forms and the most cutting-edge technology. The building is organized to place infectious patients downwind -- even with standard U.S. technology used to prevent infection from spreading.

Weill Greenberg Center, New York
Polshek Partnership Architects / Ballinger took cues from the spa environment for the Weill Greenberg Center, and created a facility that is a far cry, design-wise, from the clinical New York Hospital. Natural light, water, and tactile materials abound.

"Collectively, the winning projects exhibit conceptual strength and address aesthetic, civic, urban and social concerns, as well as the requisite programmatic functional and sustainability concerns of a healthcare facility," says national jury chair Dan Noble. "Individually, the specific design solutions create ideal healing environments for patients, staff and visitors while contributing to an improvement in the urban landscape in which they are located."