IIDA Perspective - Summer 2019 - 18

HEALING: Becoming Community Partners
Ten years ago, everything was about the big healthcare hospital-everything was there. Ten years from now, however, if you need
to have a scan, an ultrasound, or another test, it will all happen in micro-hospitals-spaces that are 15,000 square feet (1,394 square
meters) to 50,000 square feet (4,645 square meters) and open 24 hours a day-says Stasia Czech Suleiman, IIDA,
a principal and senior project interior designer at HOK in Columbus, Ohio.
"These care facilities are trying to create a greater connection with the neighborhood-through sustainability,
healthy eating, mental health, and behavioral health," she says. "What's happening now is huge. It's being a good
steward to the neighborhood-giving back in a way you don't typically see in healthcare."
Suleiman points to the Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis. "They have a full-time horticulturist
Stasia Czech Suleiman who maintains their Sky Farm rooftop vegetable garden and beehives that produce their own honey. During
the summer months, they have a local farmers market and a certain percentage of the fruits and vegetables are
donated to local food pantries," she says. "It's truly a full-circle neighborhood resource."

SOCIAL MEDIA: Influencing Minimalist Styles
Social media's influence on interior design is evident to anyone inside or outside
of the profession. But that sway goes both ways.
Lira Luis, AIA, RIBA, a principal architect at ALLL in
Chicago, points to minimalist design principles as an example.
"If you look at the format of social media platforms such as
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram, you will see a kind
of minimalist approach to design," she says. Simple icons and
logos, limited character counts, and san serif fonts appeal to
Lira Luis
the millennial consumer's eye for design while making content
more easily digestible.
She believes that artificial intelligence (AI) will reinforce the powerful
interplay of design and social media by creating real-time feedback loops.
Consumers will now be brought into and invested in the entire design process-
rather than just the outcome. "Designers will receive feedback through AI
facilitations as opposed to the traditional town hall meetings with local
community residents," she says. This will allow for constant engagement with end
users that will result in more value-driven products, spaces, and solutions.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE:
Creating a Competitive Edge
While so much has been made about the digital revolution in retail, in-store
customer experience is a key tool to help businesses
rise above purely virtual options. It's good design that
is making this possible, says Brad Burrows, the North
America strategy manager and senior workplace strategist
for Haworth in Dallas.
"Businesses that figure out how to link design to
Brad Burrows
their brand and culture have an edge over their
competitors," he says.
Customer-centric companies are working with designers to transform once
generic spaces into immersive customer experiences through locally sourced
materials, striking visuals, and brand-relevant physical elements. "Good
design links the product or space to the roots of the organization," he says.
"A well-designed customer experience is how you are remembered."

CITIES: Making an
Ever-Crowded World More Livable
By 2050, 68 percent of the world's population will live in
urban areas, according to the United
Nations. That's up from 55 percent
today and just 30 percent in 1950.
"If we're going to fit 10 billion
people on this planet, cities are our
only hope," says Ame M. Engelhart,
Ame M. Engelhart AIA, director of SOM Hong Kong.
Geographically, she's at the heart of the debate: Earlier this
year, China announced a strategy to integrate Hong Kong,
Macau, and nine other cities into the Greater Bay Area, an
economic megahub of some 70 million people.
Ensuring these booming cities are livable will come
down to the fundamental principles of good urban design
and planning: compact, mixed-use, and walkable districts
supported by access to open space, clean water, and
locally grown food. "These have been tried and tested for
centuries," says Engelhart.
At the same time, design professions must give
urban areas their own personality by supporting cultural
distinctiveness through design, she adds. "What we don't
want is the whole world looking exactly the same. The
cultural heritage of a place is so important to people's
identity," Engelhart says. "That can come in many different
ways, though, whether it's through its heritage institutes,
the way the streets were formed historically, its building
materials or colors, or the graphic symbolism used."
There are real barriers, however, that designers and
policymakers must tackle. "Usually, it's government policy,
elitism-the wealthy want more, the poor get less-and
a lack of social equity that get in the way. There are the
haves and have-nots, and that's getting worse, not better,
in most locations."

Credit

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is where the power of
18

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