To design its new patient Pavilion on the former site of the now-deconstructed Penn Tower, Penn Medicine has enlisted the design expertise of world-renowned architecture firm Foster + Partners. But the final product, a 13-story structure with 700 new beds and 50 operating and procedure rooms, will be the work of multiple inputs, including some conceptual design proposals from PennDesign graduate architecture students.
The project, expected to be completed in 2020, is being developed through a process known as Integrated Product Delivery, or IPD, in which all parties, from architect to developer to construction contractor, act as stakeholders, collaborating and sharing risks.
Mikael Avery, Lecturer in the Department of Architecture and founder of the design studio and fabrication lab Draft Works, and Joyce Lee, president of IndigoJLD Green Health, will co-teach a seminar in the Fall 2017 semester, challenging students to rethink the impact design can have on healthcare. In particular, said Avery, students will focus on designing some of the internal and adjacent public spaces, like visitor lobbies, waiting rooms, and, potentially, spaces where healthcare professionals themselves can decompress. The students will keep the “triple aim” of healthcare in mind in their approach to the design: improved health outcomes, lower costs, and an overall better healthcare experience.
“People want to be more connected,” he said. “How does a hospital respond to that?”
The seminar came to be when Lee and Avery each separately pitched classes dealing with the intersection of healthcare, wellness, and architecture to Professor and Chair of Architecture Winka Dubbeldam, who paired up the instructors following a tip from Sarah Rottenberg, director of Penn’s Integrated Product Design program.
“We have students and faculty members working in communities around the world, but it’s always special with you’re collaborating with your neighbor,” said Dubbeldam.
It may not be the case that the students’ ideas are ultimately incorporated into the physical design of the building, Avery said. But he believes it’s past time for a more critical look at healthcare design. And the opportunity for students to meet and interview the various project partners and understand client needs injects a new sense of realism and urgency, said Joyce Lee.
“While this project could be a deep dive into understanding healthcare design, we are also introducing a critical element of design and health across all the space types that extend even into urban design,” Lee said. “There are different levels of stress in all the employees working in the building, and if the design could take care of these individuals as well as the patients, we are more than doubling the benefits.”
A field trip to New York City is planned in October to visit exhibit Patient Room 2020, Foster and Partners’ Offices, plus a walking tour of Cornell medical campus on the east side of Manhattan.
Ultimately, Penn Medicine is hoping to “future-proof” the facility, and students will be thinking long-term about how hospitals can respond to changing healthcare trends. At the end of the semester, they’ll present their ideas to representatives of the design team, and Avery said he plans to invite criticism of the ideas from other professionals as well. The New Patient Pavilion could be standing for 100 years, he said. Can it be designed in a way that allows it to adapt over time?
Students interested in enrolling in the seminar, Innovation in Design and Health (ARCH 735) can contact the Department of Architecture.
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