Why Building Sciences?

At first blush, one might think “building sciences” refers to the use of materials science, engineering, and architecture to optimize structures for withstanding extreme weather and natural phenomena. Building sciences may also include environmental friendliness, energy consumption, building maintenance, sustainability, and the comfort and health of the occupants. As a collection of sciences, building sciences is not limited to how buildings are affected, but also how buildings impact the world around them (and in them).

Well, what of our hospitals, our clinics, our patients’ homes? How might those very structures impact health, wellness, disease, and recovery? Might we consider the impact of the facility design on patient flow, the spread of infection, the healthcare supply chain, the response to emergencies, and even the mood of the occupants?

Thinking Differently about Building Sciences and Facility Design

• Biomimicry and Building Sciences – Turning Cities Into Organisms
• The Third Teacher – Ideas and Guiding Principles for Education Facility Design
• Life Raft Designed to Make Seawater Drinkable
• Nurturing Innovation: Research and Innovation – Together
• Other MI2 Articles on Building Sciences or Facility Design

Building Sciences Resources and Centers

• The Center for Health Design’s Pebble Project
• Center for Advanced Design Research and Evaluation (CADRE)
• National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS)
• Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA)
• The James Dyson Award
• Clean Med 2012

Building Sciences at MedStar:

MI2′s Center for Building Sciences

• Develops and evaluates new concepts in healthcare design that impact clinical outcomes, safety, sustainability and/or operational efficiency.
• Partners with companies developing materials or technologies with promise to improve clinical outcomes, safety, sustainability or operational efficiency.
• Contributes to the healthcare design evidence base.
• Conducts research supporting innovation in the environment of care (clinical outcomes, safety, sustainability, operational efficiency).
• Provides pre-construction consultation to hospital design teams.
• Related Links:
• ER One Institute
• MedStar Washington Hospital Center – ER One Institute
• The Environmental Microbiology Section of the Laboratory of Clinical Investigations
• In The News:
• Green Hospitals Make for Healthier Communities – Initiatives Seek To Reduce Use, Waste, and Illness
• Nurturing Innovation: Research and Innovation – Together – from Healthcare Design Magazine where MI2′s own Whitney Austin Gray, PhD, LEED AP is quoted extensively.
• The Center for Health Design’s Pebble Project – a one and a half day experience to provide you with the latest design research, applications, tools and processes for designing an effective, efficient, and safe new Emergency Department
• High Anxiety – Dispelled By Design
• ED Design Could Be a Bridge to the Future – Ella Franklin, RN, managing director, ER One Center for Building Sciences, MedStar Institute for Innovation, was featured in the October issue of Hospitals and Health Networks magazine. [MAG]