A team comprising The Miller Hull Partnership, The S/L/A/M Collaborative, and Lease Crutcher Lewis has completed the new Health Sciences Education Building at the University of Washington in Seattle. Designed using a ‘culture of care’ philosophy, the scheme seeks to provide a “shared physical space that sparks innovation and creativity among students.”

Marking a new entrance to the university’s South Campus, the Health Sciences Education Building is the first project to be delivered as part of a wider campus master plan. While the existing campus prioritizes an indoor circulation system between buildings, the new scheme seeks to pull people outdoors and introduce a new network of accessible pathways, murals, and sculptural public art, as well as outdoor seating areas.

The building is constructed of a hybrid system using steel, concrete, and cross-laminated timber. Inside, the inclusion of CLT floor and roof assemblies is intended to “bring the warmth and beauty of wood to the formal and informal learning environments while supporting regional economic growth.” On the exterior, meanwhile, a “textural and reflective building skin” forms part of the building’s attempt to challenge the “standard of sterile, immersive, hospital-like environments found in most university medical buildings.”

Informed by data indicating that 80% of medical errors are related to miscommunication, the design team prioritized the inclusion of shared resources in the building. The resulting layout strikes a balance between scheduled classrooms and student collaboration zones, providing spaces for group work, interaction, and creativity.

The building’s new Skills Lab Suite allows students from all health sciences to converge in large or small groups, “setting the stage for delivering and evaluating patient-centered care and promoting health for individuals and communities in the workforce.” Each classroom is equipped with technology for lecture capture, remote participation, live connection with other learning spaces in the city and region, and virtual appointments.

“For years, campus buildings have been constructed around a discipline or department, leading to programs being siloed and respective buildings seen as their turf,” said Elizabeth Moggio, Project Manager and Principal at Miller Hull. “Our approach lends itself to the optimization of resources and offers space for six disciplines to be co-located in the same building. The design is highly flexible, supporting future resiliency. If programs grow or shrink, no space will go unused because they are designed for change and with an eye towards universality.”

The building is one of several recently completed education-focused buildings to feature in our editorial. Earlier this month, Snøhetta completed Vesterheim Commons, part of the National Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School, while in September, DIALOG and Smoke Architecture completed an Ontario college building inspired by Indigenous principles.

In August, robots helped assemble a domed timber pavilion on the University of Freiburg campus in Germany, while in July, Shakespeare, Gordon, Vlado: Architects completed three upgraded science labs for Columbia University.