In the current political climate of constantly shifting national healthcare policy, healthcare architects and their clients are facing new challenges when it comes to long-term planning. Former EYP Healthcare Sector Leader David Watkins recently authored the article, “The Future of Healthcare Architecture: Obstacles and Opportunities Abound,” for Building Design + Construction, exploring these challenges, along with strategies and opportunities for architects to make meaningful recommendations to provide long term value to their healthcare clients and the communities they serve.

Environmental Graphic Design (EGD) reinforces the “Well Building” concept that has become central to so many building designs. EGD is also an excellent way to extend the conversation of the sustainability of buildings to elements we all need to live and flourish within the built environment. Through strategic EGD installations, we can encourage people to make healthy choices throughout their day while simultaneously helping clients subtly promote wellness.  More

The X/O Skeleton conceptual design, a recent winner of the international “Rethinking the Future” Award competition, continues to be showcased as a model of innovative, energy efficient design in a variety of key publications, including Architectural Digest, World Architecture News, and Next City.

The design of Alumni Hall at Pace University embodies what EYP has learned from previous research on how students use space, and how that space can influence outcomes. More

Using the right energy modeling tools at the right time in the design process is especially important in historic preservation, no matter what type of preservation is being undertaken. More

While we currently operate largely within the 3rd generation of BIM, we increasingly see owner requirements that suggest the next generation of BIM is fast approaching. In the 4th generation of BIM – BI(m) – the information contained in the model becomes more important than the 3D model element itself. One of the more concrete examples of BI(m) is the COBie (Construction to Operation Building Information Exchange) requirement, where design and construction-phase information is transferred to an owner for the operation of the building. Instead of creating a mountain of paper, all the information on equipment within the BIM model – color, model, manufacturer, links to PDFs on the component - is extracted into a spreadsheet format so that owners can easily access information for the future maintenance and operation of building equipment. In this newest generation of BI(m), the owner is able to benefit from the information in the model without actually having to deal with the model itself. More

The technical challenges facing BIM adoption today and in the future, are largely the result of legacy workflow protocols triggered by current software. Though our current BIM solutions have served us well over the last decade, they may not be built to lead us for future success. In particular, they have not created scalable, open or granular access to the information we create during design activities. To be most effective, future BIM implementation needs to consider the entire lifecycle of BIM data, including its consumption by downstream users. Current BIM applications create massive datasets, often within a single file. Given that we will have more – and more widely distributed – BIM teams in the future, greater granularity of BIM data will be vital for the collaborative consumption of information. Instead of continuing to create ever larger files, we need to conceptualize and structure the BIM environment for quick and easy access. We imagine an arrangement where BIM is comprised of many tiny pieces of data we are calling atomicBIM – i.e., BIM in small, discrete pieces of data. An atomized information structure would provide granularity and rapid access so that subsets of BIM information could be more easily accessed without a massive download. More

Due to the benefits of using 3D virtual models to guide real-world processes, BIM has gradually grown from its origins in BM (Building Modeling) into BI (Building Information) with various combinations of model and data in between. A Building Information model can be viewed as a collection of BIM ‘atoms’ of information in a context of project information. Over four generations - BM, BM+I, BIM, and BI(m) - the composition of the atoms has changed but the essential nucleus of information is preserved. We are now entering the phase where BIM is valued as much for the information it can contribute beyond design and construction, and there are clear use scenarios, such as COBie, where the information within the model is transferred even when the model itself is not. More

Celebrating the most impactful demonstrations of innovation in energy efficient design, the prestigious Rethinking the Future Award program honored the X/O Skeleton with a First Award in the Office Building (Concept) category. One of few winners selected out of 512 registrations from 30 nations, the forward-thinking design was inspired by natural organisms and proposes, “a new way of thinking about high-rise façade construction – one that minimizes the structure’s embodied energy, as well as its lifetime use.”

How does your organization measure health and human performance? Well, the answer might vary depending on who you ask, but new tools and methods are taking a more comprehensive and objective approach to the study. More