A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (“Scientific Discovery, Inspired by a Walk to the Restroom”) made the argument that locating key support facilities has a role in fostering collaborative research environments.

As a design researcher, whenever I read a piece like this that cites research without providing citations or references, I become concerned about the quality of the evidence.

I decided to do a little digging. Although I was unable to find a research study documenting a 50-foot rule (“collaboration drops to 10% when workers are more than 50 feet ...[more]

Last July we held a large-scale affinity mapping charrette as a way of gathering data about people’s day-to-day tasks and responsibilities. The affinity map proved to be a very effective tool for aggregating the collective wisdom of the crowd.

Collective intelligence in the digital realm is an idea that’s gained more traction in the past couple of years. Think of the crowdsourcing used to build the Linux operating system or Google’s search algorithms. What makes affinity mapping unique is its use as an analog tool to document collective intelligence. Even better, it creates a physical representation of the group’s collective thinking: the Post-It diagram.

The process of creating that physical artifact ...[more]

What are the benefits – and challenges – facing architecture firms seeking to advance knowledge-based design by conducting facility evaluations on their own projects? Angela Watson and Mardelle Shepley discuss the process for practitioner-focused facility evaluation (PFE) in the Design & Health Scientific Review section of the January 2011 issue of World Health Design.

In the article, Angela and Mardelle present a study conducted using different methods of practitioner-focused facility evaluation, drawing information from Shepley Bulfinch projects at Concord Hospital; Mass General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care (including the ...[more]

Shouldn’t the design of a healthcare facility begin with creating a healthy environment? That’s the argument Angela Watson makes in her article, “LEED by example: Using sustainable design to create a healing environment,” which appears in the January 2010 issue of Healthcare Design magazine. In the article, she discusses the process behind Concord Hospital’s 2008 expansion and renovation, and the hospital’s subsequent receipt of LEED certification, the first in northern New England to be so recognized.

Healthcare Design article

Principals Jennifer Aliber and Angela Watson discuss the creation of therapeutic environments in their contribution to the new book, Design for Critical Care: An Evidence-Based Approach by Kirk Hamilton and Mardelle Shepley. Jennifer and Angela discuss the impact of evidence-based design on patient safety and the quality of care in acute-care facilities.

The book was published by Architectural Press, an imprint of Elsevier, in September.

Book listing on Elsevier website

Shepley Bulfinch turned its design research lens on itself with the publication of a post-occupancy evaluation of the firm’s office in Boston in the Journal of Interior Design.

The evaluation, which was conducted a year after the firm occupied its new space in January 2006, indicated that the design significantly increased staff satisfaction and met the project’s primary design intentions. Interviews were conducted with the project’s design team and staff members.

The article, which was co-authored by Mardelle Shepley, Mary Boggess, and You Jin Lee of Texas A&M, and Kelly Zimmerman of Shepley Bulfinch, appeared ...[more]