As the Earth’s climate changes and sea waters rise, the world’s many coastal cities must get creative to stay afloat. Levees, floodwalls, and other man-made infrastructure are enormous cost burdens that continue to be overpowered by super storms and severe flooding. Planners and designers around the country are exploring methods to make coastal cities more resilient to these... Read more »
This article outlines the use of operational planning and simulation modeling as a lean tool within Perkins+Will, to determine the room utilization and staffing for a large trauma center, based on current and projected volumes and turnaround times. A specific area of focus was the Resuscitation Rooms and their location within the emergency department (ED). In its most... Read more »
The focus of this article is the open building concept in multi-family residential architecture. The article analyzes and examines two specific projects: the Solid Oud West in Amsterdam (2010) and the Plus Home experience in Helsinki (2005). By the analysis of these projects, the article seeks to define the state-of-the-art in open building practice, and aims to expose... Read more »
Increasing occurrences of natural disasters and effects of climate change are creating more pressure to design resilient buildings that can withstand and adapt to changing risks, while being sustainable and creating healthy environments. A key challenge to the implementation of resilient design is perceived viability and how to incorporate and communicate the long-term benefits into the equation. This project,... Read more »
The U.S. healthcare industry is undergoing the transformation of a century. The move away from the fee-for-service payment model and the Affordable Care Act are driving a paradigm shift towards disease prevention and population health management with services increasingly delivered in lower-cost, community-based settings. Redefining healthcare typologies and planning methods is an integral part of... Read more »
Current research on the impacts of landscape architecture on children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are surprisingly lacking, considering the believed benefits of the natural environment on individuals with special needs. This study examines how outdoor design elements benefit children with ASD and specifically, how these design criteria can be implemented to inform the design... Read more »
As we move toward designing more open offices, clients are faced with having to adapt to unfamiliar types of aural environments. Along with the advantages of open offices also comes the issues of noise disturbance and speech privacy from adjacent workstations, which are often addressed by the introduction of a sound masking system. The question remains, how well... Read more »
Lean ideas have been used in the business world for some time. Lean advocates have been adapting these principles to different industries, including construction. The main principles of lean processes include value added to the customer and elimination of waste. It is very important for the owner to get the project completed on time, but that is a... Read more »
The growing pressure to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings requires designers to balance functionality and cost objectives with environmental impact. With a significantly lower carbon footprint than concrete or steel structures and many other environmental and human health benefits, wood has reemerged as a desirable and viable structural material for taller buildings.Forestry Innovation Investment and the Binational... Read more »
Epidural analgesia is the most popular method of controlling pain in labor in the United States today, but it has serious side effects and risks for both mothers and babies. Though most laboring American women choose epidural analgesia, it is important not to confuse a hospital’s failure to provide options with patient preference. Few large... Read more »
Nature has been recycling water within the Earth’s closed ecosystem since the very beginning of time. Humans, although a part of the ecosystem, have misappropriated this precious reserve, severely imperiling the availability of freshwater for future use for all life on Earth. Civilizations have thrived or collapsed because of water. The restructuring of our established... Read more »
