At the VA I have learned several interesting things within medical design. Before I came to the VA I knew that the medical field of interior design was going to be strict in rules and pretty much a design field on its own, but I had no idea to what extent until now. Although most of my assignments have been minor such as distributing artificial plants through new buildings to add greenery and completing work orders of mostly furniture, I learn the most knowledgable information through the meetings that we attend with architects and on site contractors.
With new buildings constantly being added several departments of the hospital are constantly moved around. The problem that I have noticed that constantly occurs is when they move people they have to take into consideration that many of the departments must be adjacent to one another and some require more space than others. For the existing buildings it is extremely difficult to place departments accordingly, and with minimum constructional changes. The interior designers on property have come across dilemmas of their own, being that these departments are changing their locations, the size of their spaces also change. When the size of the space changes for that department moving the furniture doesn’t always fit comfortably in the new space. The Designers’ challenge is to determine the new space and decide what pieces may work from the old spaces and into the new, and because there are budgets involved its not always the best option just to order new furniture.
Seeing situations such as this puts things into perspective of what type of problems are presented in the real world and how it might be handled. When dealing with a hospital environment it is clear on the amount of thought and research that must go into planning and preparing their spaces. Having a clear understanding of what departments should be adjacent to each other and how each space functions is crucial in making each space as functional as possible.
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