ARCH 14 - International Conference on Research on Health Care Architecture - November 19-21, 2014, Espoo, Finland - Conference Proceedings

Healthcare Architecture has grown rapidly in recent years. However, there are still many questions remaining. The commission, therefore, is to share the existing research knowledge and latest results and to carry out research projects focusing more specifically on the health care situation in a variety of contexts. The ARCH14 conference was the third conference in the series of ARCH conferences on Research on Health Care Architecture initiated by Chalmers University. It was realized in collaboration with the Nordic Research Network for Healthcare Architecture .It was a joint event between Aalto University, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) and National Institute of Health and Welfare (THL International).The conference gathered together more than 70 researchers and practitioners from across disciplines and countries to discuss the current themes

Interactive Tools for Collaborative Architectural Design

Today's rapidly changing society is continuously developing towards an increased demand for multistakeholder knowledge and influence in the architectural planning and design process. Accordingly, we are working with developing and setting up a partner engaged collaborative design process. It includes active collaboration between users, external partners and designers, and visualizations in conceptual design and scenario building. My research is focusing on integrating visualization technology in theseprocesses by application of digital tools. We have developed a working prototype for an interactive design tool. The prototype is an extremely “easy to use” digital modelling tool called “ForeSite Designer.” With this tool one builds oneis own spatial environment with elements on a 2D surface.With one command the 2D layout is exported to a lit-up 3D/Virtual Reality world in the computer game “Half-Life”. ForeSite Designer has lately been used in a series of workshops together with external users. In these processes ForeSite Designer has played a crucial role as an arena of building spatially arranged concepts of future environments. The results show that it works, and, importantly, promotes a collaborative engagement among the users