Activate Auckland!

Activate Auckland!

Yesterday we had a visit from Activate Auckland. Activate Auckland is a collaborative community initiative to energise public spaces of inner city Auckland.

At the Lab we often think of the hospital as a city within a city. After hearing a little about Activate Auckland at the Universal Design Symposium we thought we better hear some more! An inspirational initiative, Barbara and Natalie talked us through several examples of spaces they’ve activated in the CBD. These included the Lorne St Parklet and initiatives for the High St District currently feeling the effects of construction. The Activate team bring together people and groups from creative industries to bring citizen inspired and people-centred projects to reality.

It was great to hear how the Activate team are able to invite different participants, whether they are corporate stakeholders or small businesses, to find ways to bring pockets of the CBD to life. In particular how they can take disruption and negative things like construction disturbances and turn them into positives. The range of initiatives, speed at which the team are able to implement ideas, the ways which they gauge success, so many great things for us at the Lab to learn from!

Thanks Barbara and Natalie for your time! Hopefully we can do a few cool things in 2017 for our neighbourhood. The opportunities are not just for within our Grafton boundaries but collaborating with our neighbours and other DHB campuses.

Medical Illustrations

Illustrator Emma Scheltema has had some great success this year with implemented designs both at Auckland Hospital and abroad. She has worked with explaining 'Cast Care' and 'Bone Remodelling' to children and their parents at Starship Orthopaedics Outpatients. 

Emma's illustrations were also featured in the European Medical Journal, describing different types of heart surgeries called 'Fontan Procedures.' Take a look at some example of her work:

Backspace_

The lab is an environment for collaboration, prototyping and experimentation. The nature of our studio space reflects this, through its use of lightweight, mobile furniture and infrastructure. As the scale of projects undertaken by the lab expands, alongside our growing team, we've adapted the studio to create a unique, private workspace that allows for focused collaboration and 'war room' style workshops. 

Situated towards the rear of the lab, Backspace is a light-filled mini studio constructed entirely of existing structures and materials. White coreflute panels sit within tall timber frames, combined with a lowered wave-like fabric ceiling to create a soft, elegant space that encourages fresh thinking and a greater sense of focus. 

Backspace is an example of prototyping within work environments to create low cost but highly effective spaces for collaboration and creativity. 

If only we could do something about the sound… 

ID/Lab x DHW Lab collab

This past year the DHW Lab has been working on improving wayfinding at Auckland City Hospital. To provide expertise around the strategic elements of wayfinding, such as designing and problem-solving for a campus-wide system, wayfinding strategists ID/Lab were engaged. Specialising in hospital wayfinding, they have designed for over 40 hospitals world-wide. 

Unlike a traditional client/consultant relationship, this was a collaborative venture between the two studios. Strategists and designers from the firm worked over an intensive 7 days with designers from the DHW Lab. We explored the campus using journey mapping, personas, and prioritised areas for improvement. As part of this collab, ID/Lab coached members of the team in the dark arts of wayfinding, providing insight into their strategic approach and methods in solving complex, multi-layered problems.

For both studios this was a positive new experience, and we look forward to more collaborative opportunities like this in the future. The clarity they provided in their wealth of experience was refreshing and inspiring. As part of their time with us the wayfinding work the DHW Lab had completed to date was critiqued, and many of our ideas validated and made more robust. They will continue to support us till early next year, as we compile the wayfinding strategy, recommendations, and updated design guideline for the Auckland DHB to take forward.

DHW Lab Open HOME_ 7 December 2016

Hello, friends of the DHW Lab!

We invite you to our open day showcasing how design has been quietly growing in Auckland City Hospital through our designers and postgraduate students.

The open day is to showcase our 2016 postgraduate students and the work DHW Lab has been doing over the past year. This is an opportunity to exchange and develop ideas, and to contribute to the future of design in healthcare.

Date:  Wednesday 7th December 2016

Time:  Drop in anytime between 7am – 5pm

Location:  DHW Lab, CEC Level 5, Building 32, Auckland City Hospital

Please RSVP by Tuesday 6th December 2016.

For any questions and to RSVP, please email us at hello@dhwlab.com

We can’t wait to share our work with you!

The team at DHW Lab.

Universal Design Symposium – 26th October 2016

At the Lab we’re about designing with people for people. That means ensuring we make spaces inclusive for our patients, visitors and staff.

On Wednesday a few of the team attended The Universal Design Symposium hosted by the Auckland Design Office, part of Auckland City Council. It was a great event with a range of speakers showcasing examples of inclusive design and providing some interesting disability sector context. Whilst 24% of New Zealanders identify themselves as having a functional disability today, that doesn’t account for those with sensory or brain impairments. It is also a snapshot in time, at some point many of us will develop complex needs as we age.

Key note speaker Valerie Fletcher, Executive Director of the Institute for Human Centered Design (USA) provided the platform for the day and put it nicely when she said that variation in ability is the norm, not the other way around. It just happens to be highlighted at the margins, for those with complex needs. When designing inclusively, it’s not about compliance with disability building codes, there should be no “us” and “them”.  Among the speakers we heard from Dr Zena O’Connor, who also popped up to the hospital to speak at a Grand Round for us and has provided great feedback on some of our concepts for Wayfinding changes. Thank you Zena!

The day also included a tour of different Auckland city locations where good design is taking place. Some of the team can be seen below on the shared spaces tour.

Little things can make a big difference to our environment, whether it is insufficient colour contrast to differentiate furnishings or reflective surfaces that may be seen as a pool of water to visually or cognitively impaired visitors to the hospital. You can see some small examples of the DHWLabs work with inclusivity in mind here.  The Auckland Design Office has a universal design toolkit coming before the end of the year that will add to their Auckland Design Manual.  We’re hoping to share our Healing Environments insights that have contributed to designs in our pending Carpark A entry refurbishment.