A Healthy Dose of Design

While 2008 may have been a less-than-banner year for many businesses, health-care design still provided a good source of revenue, what with technology advancing, boomers aging, and facilities getting overcrowded. Witness the numbers we gathered from the top Interior Design Giants for 2009. Of those 100 firms, 49 did work in the health-care sector last year. While only the third-largest category for these firms, behind office and hospitality, health care managed to account for their highest hourly billing rates. What's more, these Giants reported a $68 million increase in health-care fees from 2007.

Also on the upswing is environmental consciousness, with roughly 60 percent of the Giants stating that health-care clients are receptive to green design. The 5,500-odd designers at these firms are more than ready to meet the challenge, as 85 percent are LEED-accredited.

The following pages share some of the innovative work that our Giants and other major firms are doing in health care worldwide. Let the healing—and the greening—begin.

Project KU64 Die Zahnspezialisten, Berlin.

Standout To help ease patient anxiety at this dental clinic, the architects evoked sand dunes with undulating walls, floors, and ceilings tinted orange and silk-screened with beach scenes.

Project Gamma Knife Center at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.

Standout A basement space gains visual interest from colorful images printed on the acrylic panels installed overhead.

Project Ospedale Pediatrico Meyer, Florence, Italy.

Standout The triple-height atrium lobby enchants young patients and their families with its sunlight, park views, play areas, and colorful seating.

Project Swedish Orthopedic Institute, Seattle.

Standout Building on the idea that health care requires trust, the firm emphasized transparency via glazing for all the lobbies and waiting areas, plus a patient presurgery area enclosed in fritted glass.

Kasian

Project University of Calgary's Child Development Centre, Alberta.

Standout With this building's zinc cladding and aluminum-composite or photovoltaic panels, mod meets high-tech while earning a LEED Platinum rating.

Project Florida Hospital Altamonte, Altamonte Springs.

Standout State-of-the-art intensive-care units feature 4-foot-wide doorways for easy bed and equipment entry; vinyl flooring that looks like wood; and dedicated chart stations for nurses.

Estudio Entresitio

Project CEDT Daimiel, Ciudad Real, Spain.

Standout To provide this treatment center with privacy and shade, galvanized-steel plates were perforated, bent into a Z shape, and mounted on galvanized-steel frames.

Project New England Baptist Hospital, Boston.

Standout The tight space relegated to post-anesthesia care is nonetheless functional and airy, thanks to a pale neutral palette for bay curtains, plastic-laminate surfaces, and upholstery.

Project Lindner Center of Hope, Mason, Ohio.

Standout With a woodland view and a leaf mobile by sculptor Gordon Auchincloss, this 38-foot-high vaulted atrium is steeped in calm.

RMJM

Project University of South Alabama's Mitchell Cancer Institute, Mobile.

Standout Radiology rooms have acrylic ceiling panels with nature imagery backlit by LEDs.

Project Catholic Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea.

Standout Balustrades of clear laminated glass and bridges of steel and concrete add drama to a five-story atrium lobby.

Project Obeid Dental, Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Standout Paperless and all-digital, this clinic has a reception area with a resin desk, pill-shape ceiling cutouts, and a Ross Lovegrove chair.