SickKids Project Horizon involves the creation of a new paradigm in pediatric care within a facility commensurate with the world-class research and treatment provided by SickKids’ medical, research and administrative staff and broader community.

Dr. Celeste Alvaro was a contributor to the proposal development and proponent presentation. Celeste is the design research and evaluation lead on the Integrated Design Team led by Stantec | KPMB in Joint Venture. Methologica was involved in early stakeholder engagement, visioning, and continues to advise on user engagement and research insights at various phases of the SickKids design development including Early Works Projects.

Aspirations include continued user and stakeholder engagement, capturing user experience and innovative research insights to inform design development, and the collaborative development of an iterative design research and evaluation program before, over the course of redevelopment, and after construction to inform and evaluate the design of the new SickKids pediatric care facility on outcomes of importance to patients, staff, visitors, the organization, and the community.

Details about the University Park and Wellness District Public Realm design project are forthcoming…

Whether it’s for business, a weekend escape, or an enriched leisure travel experience, a number of factors influence your choice of hotel. What motivates someone to stay in a boutique hotel as opposed to the larger and more familiar branded hotels? A multiple case study of select North American and European boutique design hotels was conducted to understand patterns of behaviour and how hotel design can enhance the user experience.

A remarkable aspect of the Bridgepoint architecture was the deliberate attempt to design for social impact – over and above function. Bridgepoint was designed as a village of care that inspires wellness and connects healthcare to community.

The central design intentions were to: create an environment of wellness; enhance connection to nature, the community, the city; encourage patients to re-engage in life; increase social interaction; foster optimism and hope; and inspire activity.

This involved a unique collaborative approach to understanding the design development process, design decisions and identifying the design intentions and anticipated outcomes followed by a series of concept mapping exercises to inform measurement, methods and approach to data collection and analysis. We created a novel approach to design research and evaluation that captures user experience, fuzzy or seemingly intangible psychological and social constructs related to wellness. This project represented an unprecedented approach to assessing the impact of architectural design – and the design of the built environment, broadly defined – on affective, behavioural, social and health related outcomes before and after the redevelopment. It remains the largest mixed quantitative and qualitative methods pre and post occupancy evaluation in Canada and a case in defense of design excellence for social impact – how architecture and design can optimize the human condition.

Led by Dr. Celeste Alvaro in her role as an academic research scientist and professor where she created an Architectural Design and Wellbeing research lab, this project secured $1.5M in research funding via the first and only Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) grant with matched Ministry of Health and Long Term Care along and salary funding from the Bridgepoint Collaboratory for Research and Innovation. Both the approach and the team – including Diamond Schmitt Architects, HDR, Stantec | KPMB in Joint Venture, Ryerson University, Bridgepoint Active Healthcare leadership, and a cadre of research associates and interns – represented a shift in thinking about design excellence and evaluation.

It became the gold standard and template for user experience, design research and evaluation. The collaboration resulted in the inclusion of design research & evaluation in major healthcare redevelopment projects across Ontario, the development of a CSA standard for Design Research and Evaluation, the commercialization of a research grant to launch Methologica, and an ever evolving and customized approach to design development, design research and evaluation in healthcare facility design and beyond.

The Providence Care Hospital redevelopment in Kingston, Canada involved the construction of a new hospital catering to patients in complex chronic care, rehabilitation and mental health. The new hospital brought two sites that operated in two separate locations together under one roof. The core design intentions of the new Providence Care Hospital were to promote recovery and transition, foster connection and connectivity, create a healing environment, enhance the staff experience and reduce stigma.

Methologica developed and led a series of stakeholder engagement workshops with HOK Architects, Parkin Architects, Agnew Peckham and Providence Care Hospital. The workshops were aimed at understanding the context of care, the overarching design intentions and a series of concept mapping exercises to identify anticipated outcomes and develop a custom pre and post occupancy evaluation framework. The framework identified priority areas for inclusion in the evaluation based on the design intentions and anticipated outcomes, a proposed evaluation design, corresponding mixed quantitative and qualitative research methods and measures as well as the associated timelines for data collection across the existing and to-be-constructed sites.

Methologica’s led the coordination and execution of data collection at baseline (previous two hospital facilities) and posttest (the new Providence Care Hospital), data analysis, synthesis and reporting. The design research evaluation of Providence Care Hospital included the evaluation of three facilities, St. Mary’s of the Lake that treated complex care and rehabilitation patients, the Mental Health Services buildings that treated various mental health populations and the new Providence Care Hospital that replaced the two previously mentioned buildings.

The St. Catharines Site NHS redevelopment consisted of the construction of a brand new five-storey community hospital that replaced two other facilities and introduced regional services such as comprehensive cancer care, mental health and addiction services, maternal and paediatric care, complex care, intensive care and emergency and ambulatory care in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

Methologica developed and led a series of stakeholder engagement workshops with the Cannon Design, B+H Architects, Silver Thomas Hanley Architects and St. Catharines Site Niagara Health System. The workshops were aimed at understanding the context of care, the overarching design intentions and a series of concept mapping exercises to identify anticipated outcomes and develop a custom post occupancy evaluation framework. The framework identified priority areas for inclusion in the evaluation based on the design intentions and anticipated outcomes, a proposed evaluation design, corresponding mixed quantitative and qualitative research methods and measures as well as the associated timelines for data collection at the new St. Catharines Site facility.

Methologica’s team led the coordination and execution of data collection, data analysis, synthesis and reporting. Unique to this project, we created and executed a design research evaluation of an acute and critical care hospital that was conducted five years after its official opening.

As part of the planning design and compliance team led by HOK architects. A pre and post occupancy framework for evaluation was prepared and presented to the West Park Healthcare Centre leadership team.

The current redevelopment project includes construction of a new hospital building, including a total of 314 rehabilitation and complex continuing care inpatient beds and enhanced ambulatory care services. Two existing hospital buildings will be demolished allowing for the creation of a new street entrance and therapeutic outdoor spaces.

The St. Michael’s Hospital redevelopment consists of the construction of a new 17 story patient tower and an expansion of the emergency department. Methologica developed a tailored and site specific pre and post occupancy framework to evaluate the impact of the design on patient, staff, visitor, organization and community level outcomes. The framework identified priority areas for observation, a proposed evaluation design, corresponding methods and measures as well as the associated timelines for data collection across the existing and to-be-constructed sites. A unique aspect of the evaluation framework was the inclusion of an iterative evaluation of the emergency department to align with each design intervention while the emergency department continued operations.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada’s largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital, as well as one of the world’s leading research centres in its field. CAMH combines clinical care, research, education, policy development and health promotion to help transform the lives of people affected by mental health and addiction issues. As a component of an ongoing campus redevelopment, CAMH Phase 1C co-locates research and education spaces adjacent to clinical care to create collaborative opportunities for knowledge exchange, discovery and learning that will improve care as well as advance knowledge.

Dr. Celeste Alvaro was the Design Research & Evaluation lead on the KPMB | Montgomery Sisam Architects Planning Design and Compliance team. Celeste and the Methologica team created the evaluation framework for both pre and post occupancy and assess the impact of healthcare facility design on relevant outcomes for the CAMH Phase 1C redevelopment.  Engagement activities included involvement in early visioning, stakeholder workshops aimed at understanding the context of care, mapping the design intentions for the new hospital, identifying priority spaces for observation and, ultimately, developing the design evaluation framework.