Approach
The Architecture of Human Activity
Where architecture is understood through the demands of human activity.
Philosophy
Healthcare environments are not neutral containers—they function as clinical interventions. Every spatial decision enables or constrains human function. We translate this reality into design strategy: creating spaces that support human performance across the complex choreography of care delivery.
Process
Functional Engagement Personas™
We develop Functional Engagement Personas™ from real peoplein healthcare systems, representing populations with shared functional characteristics. These personas capture how mobility, cognition, and sensory processing shape engagement with healthcare environments and anchor design decisions in the realities of human performance.
Performance MappingPerformance mapping translates Functional Engagement Personas™ into actionable insight by examining tasks as they are performed. Using occupational therapy methodology, we deconstruct clinical activities into physical, cognitive, and sensory components, revealing dependencies invisible to traditional planning. This exposes gaps between design intent and real-world function—showing how exam procedures rely on transfer mechanics, how wayfinding succeeds or fails under cognitive load, and how spatial sequencing drives clinical efficiency. Through this lens, we identify environmental specifications to support human performance.
Evidence-Informed RecommendationsDesign recommendations emerge at the intersection of peer-reviewed evidence, clinical expertise, and the performance of Functional Engagement Personas™. We synthesize insights from medicine, disability studies, and healthcare design to produce defensible, population-specific spatial specifications. This approach grounds recommendations in functional outcomes, maintaining practicality and durability through design development, value engineering, and implementation.