Health at the Margins: Exploration of an Academic Studio Approach to Design for Physical and Mental Resilience in a Sustainable Context

Abstract

Although serious issues existed before, the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the severity of health care issues. These must be resolved if marginalized populations are to be cared for healthfully and with dignity. An exploding senior population, dropping fertility rates, and a decrease in families caring for their older relatives lead to a crisis in how society houses and cares for people as they age. The built environment is shown to have a significant impact on wellbeing and quality of care; however, design is falling short in applying these findings. This paper reports on efforts to find an innovative approach in academia to improve health outcomes. The innovation lies in the inclusion of multiple scales and perspectives based on individual and collective lenses, as well the subjective and objective. These perspectives inform research objectives that are foundational to the design process, including carbon reduction, demographics, recent health studies, and state of the art developments, such as technology and biophilia. The projects investigate resilience in the built environment to support the physical and mental resilience of marginalized populations and their caregivers. The paper includes students’ conclusions of the process, and provides insights and recommendations to improve design in-and-out of the studio. The purpose of the paper is to improve design education with potential generalized solutions that may be adopted and used at other institutions in the hopes of impacting future leaders of tomorrow.