Archinect - News

Architects Issue Report Documenting the Connection Between Design and Public Health, Press Releases

2012-12-11T12:33:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) today issued a report: Local Leaders: Healthier Communities Through Design that provides a roadmap for towns and cities looking to help their populations stay healthy by employing design techniques that encourage residents to increase their physical activity.

The report, which was released today at Governing Magazine’s “Summit on Healthy Living,” demonstrates how active lifestyles aided by positive design choices lead to a healthier population. Individuals who live in livable, mixed use communities, with options for transit - weigh less, are more physically active, and experience less chronic disease.

“Architects play a key role in designing healthy environments,” said AIA CEO Robert Ivy, FAIA. “This report shows the benefits our profession can bring to establishing a built environment that encourages exercise and discourages a sedentary lifestyle.”

Key barometers of health suggest America is heading in the wrong direction, namely toward physical inactivity, obesity, and chronic disease. Studies, highlighted in the report, demonstrate that the median improvement in some aspect of physical activity for livable urban communities can be over 160 percent. Studies also show that a community designed for exercise can prevent 90 percent o...

Active design - using architecture to help reduce obesity

2012-11-01T18:30:00-04:00

"If exercise and everyday activity is the mantra, how do you, through design, get people to exercise? ... There is a direct relation between the built environment and people's lifestyles." History has proved it. Architecture played a major role in defeating infectious diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis in the 19th and 20th centuries by designing better buildings, streets, clean-water systems and parks.

New Health Center will invigorate one of Atlanta's toughest neighborhoods.

2012-05-14T17:53:00-04:00

This 34,000-square-foot regional health facility located in an under-served neighborhood in southwest Atlanta combines under one roof a primary care clinic, a behavioral health clinic, childcare facilities, a dental clinic and a workforce community center. In doing so, it projects a holistic idea of wellness and a positive self-image for a challenged community. The building is also meant as a catalyst for future growth in the area.

The intention was to create a structure that feels vibrant and alive. The roof was conceived as a dynamic, protective element, a metaphoric blanket, opening upward to welcome in the public. A standing-seam “clamp” folds over the roof to house mechanical equipment, identify major entries and serve as a beacon. Inside, a decentralized, double-height circulation lobby further integrates all the programmatic components.

The notion of co-locating all these functions in a single facility to serve people of varied backgrounds led to consideration of the co...

A Journey from Architecture and Design to Gourmet Dog Food

2012-03-02T13:40:00-05:00

After getting her Masters of Architecture from MIT in 2001, she was an architect for Delson or Sherman, and then was a designer for Fresh, but she gradually started to lose interest in her projects at work. “I decided I wanted to turn this passion of mine, to give my dog a well-balanced complete meal that made her healthy again, into a full-time job,” Liao said of her decision to quit her job at Fresh almost two years ago to start her own company.

Thinking positively about housing for World AIDS Day

2011-12-01T13:48:33-05:00

Once again this December 1st the world's attention turns to the global issue of HIV/AIDS. Typically media coverage focuses on the role of education and redoubling efforts to prevent transmission among at-risk groups. However one aspect of the disease that has received less attention is the extent to which housing conditions affect both the risk of infection and the wellbeing of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Architect Robert Woo, paralyzed in Goldman Sachs construction mishap, walks with ‘exoskeleton’

2011-11-04T14:00:16-04:00

It’s like a body brace with a backpack and gizmos that resemble shotguns near the knees. A physical therapist operates a remote control that makes the patient step when their body is properly aligned.