The internationally renown healthcare architecture and planning
initiative at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture will
be 40 years old next year and the college’s Center for
Health Systems & Design (CHSD) is preparing a big celebration
to mark the occasion.
Tentative plans call for a 40th anniversary celebration to be
held in San Antonio, Texas during the American Society for Healthcare
Engineering’s Feb. 25-28, 2007 conference.
While plans take shape, CHSD is busy identifying all College
of Architecture graduates who are, or have been, involved in
healthcare facility design. Names and contact information should
be submitted to Judy Pruitt at jpruitt@archone.tamu.edu or by
calling (979) 845-7009.
The Texas A&M architecture program’s focus on healthcare
design began in 1967 when professor George J. Mann introduced
an especially adept studio to the emerging architectural specialization.
In the four decades since, the Texas A&M architecture program
has produced a whole new generation of highly nuanced architects
who specialize in designing smart, high-tech healthcare facilities
that nurture patient recovery while facilitating the numerous,
ever-changing demands of modern medicine.
Over the years, College of Architecture students and faculty
have completed more than 500 socially significant architecture-for-health
design studio projects that have enhanced the health and welfare
of people in need around the world, while providing unique opportunities
for gaining practical, hands-on experience through “real-world” projects
yielding consequential humanitarian results.
The Center for Health Systems & Design moved to the College
of Architecture in 1994. Originally known as the Center for Health
Systems and Technology, it was established by the Texas A&M
Board of Regents in 1983 at the College of Medicine to coordinate
interdisciplinary research and educational programs that transfer
technology developed by disciplines outside medicine into healthcare
design. When the center moved to the College of Architecture
the focus changed to interdisciplinary health facility planning
and design research, innovation and communication.
CHSD remains affiliated with the College of Medicine and includes
faculty fellows from numerous disciplines. Their research interests
range from the effects of stress on patients' health and wellbeing,
to the design of healing environments for neonatal patients,
children, the elderly, people who live in the Texas colonias
and AIDS patients.
The primary CHSD activities include: a professional associates
program, curriculum development, a health lecture series, support
of health-related research and design projects and a graduate
certificate program in Health Systems and Design.
The certificate program, established in 1998 and available to
students in any graduate degree program at Texas A&M University,
emphasizes a cross-disciplinary perspective yet also ensures
that students develop an in-depth understanding and ability within
a specific body of knowledge.
In 1999, CHSD faculty fellow George J. Mann, the Ronald L. Skaggs
Professor in Health Facility Design, with his colleague, Yasushi
Nagasawa, professor at the University of Tokyo, co-founded Global
University Programs in Healthcare Architecture (GUPHA), an international
organization dedicated to the promotion of professional architecture-for-health
higher education programs and the dissemination of their research
to the health design industry. The ultimate goal of GUPHA is
improved health care for the citizens of the world. Since founded,
the organization has grown from two to hundreds of member universities.
In 2004, for his life long accomplishments in architecture-for-health
education, Mann received a special recognition award from the
American Institute of Architects-Academy of Architecture, which
was presented by John D. Pangrazio, president of the American
Institute of Architects/American Hospital Association.
Many other CHSD faculty fellows enjoy international acclaim
for their work in the healthcare planning and design, and the
Texas A&M College of Architecture has produced more than
20 Graduate Fellows in the American Institute of Architects/American
Hospital Association.
For more information on Center for Health Systems & Design
and updates on the February 2007 40th anniversary of healthcare
design and planning initiatives at the Texas A&M College
of Architecture, visit the CHSD website at: http://archone.tamu.edu/chsd/
Learn more about Global University Programs in Healthcare Architecture:
http://archone.tamu.edu/college/news/
newsletters/winter2004/GUPHA.html
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