An investment in the domestic and institutional intersection of health and healthcare, coursework in my graduate studios focus on a multitude of references, from the formal manipulation of a single room, to the visual-spatial reasoning of infrastructure specific to wellness. Through a series of related filters, we investigate the mixing of clinical resources in pursuit of improving institutional wellness, synthesizing experiences into an interconnected whole, entangling divergent populations, their care, and holistic betterment.

The coursework establishes two goal-sets. The first goal set is the communal attainment of varied combinations of wellness based on the assembly of care types, and the reasoning of conditions for personal reflection and mindfulness across their differences. The second goal set is the attainment of citations referencing case-study examples in determining effectiveness, and relating our propositions to proven factors when possible. Both goals are presented through the design of hospital space whose charitable intent is providence over the health conditions that address both the physical affordances of the body and the ability of individuals to attain conditional nurturance.

In seminar courses ranging from Health Environments to Facilty Management coursework covers the general processes related to the planning, programming, design, construction and occupancy of facilities, including long range, strategic and tactical planning, the relationship between facility planning and business planning, organization of sites, buildings and interiors. Also covered are specific tools and techniques for these functions, including design and construction documentation and contracts, facility inventories, space planning and relocation management, construction and installation specifications, value engineering, post-occupancy evaluation, contract management and cost estimating techniques.

Critically examming building practices and building technology, coursework covers both plan and section selected areas of investigation using traditional building methods, and require students to research and articulate alternatives based on precedent references. Students’ assessment of the selected area must critically separate materials and other unique elements in order to delineate them in relationship to the proposed area of investigation. The primary objective is the justification of specific thematic criteria in situating material adjacencies, and the selection of building elements relative to dimensions of the room, placement of doors and windows, and consideration of electrical and mechanical features and controls.

Within foundational studios, coursework explores ways of making space in models through carving, layering, casting, and framing. The resulting work is filtered through the lenses of scale, inhabitation and program. Exercises focus on form, how it elicits reactions, suggests meaning, and comes into being, by cultivating an attitude of practice rather than instant success. Students are introduced to the basics of model-making by generating an individual form from the clearing of material away from a solid predetermined block. The carving is a result of slicing individual sheets of material to define their figure-ground spatial investigation. The figure-ground studies are interpretations of two-dimensional abstractions, which are arranged to develop three-dimensional figures by manipulating the stacking order of multiple figure-ground studies. Each student investigates the spatial development through a series of sectional drawings along various axes utilizing a variety of representational techniques. These are derived from their model-making and are discussed as both an objective and subjective study of spatial composition through photographs and axonometric drawings as investigations of three-dimensional space.