Healthcare Design and Other Oxymorons

If you have ever experienced prolonged contact with Architects, you know they are a subspecies that sees the world through kaleidoscopic glasses -- nothing focused, ever-changing, unpredictable, and beautiful. "Healthcare Design and Other Oxymorons" is a peek through a pair of those glasses -- mine. We will ricochet from opinions to experiences to poems to philosophies, arranged in no particular order, straight from my pinball mind. I have always known I wanted to be an architect, virtually springing from the womb "T" square in hand. Maybe that's why Mother never liked me. Most architects will tell you they have always known they wanted to be an architect. One does not dabble in various jobs and eventually decide to try architecture next. Architecture is an easily identifiable job, like a fireman or doctor, which children can understand and adopt at an early age. Professions like insurance agent, union boss, or florist don't seem to light the fire of a five year old. But an architect -- wow! Unfortunately architects do not have hero status like firemen or doctors. Architects are much maligned, I think by bad rumors started by evil contractors. Stuff like "Architects can't keep a budget, can't meet a schedule, and can't stop leaks, cracks or squeaks." All this is very true. We have good reasons but exploring them has already been done in stunning boredom in many other books. Not this one. Some of my friends (I think) have read parts of this book as it was being written and have questioned why I would mix so many topics -- healthcare, sustainability, religion, growing up, politics, ethics, etc. -- into a book about the practice of architectural design. The answer is that every one of these topics influences architecture and, to a great extent, architecture influences them. There cannot be a serious discussion about the design of a church, or a town, or a hospital without understanding the relationships that civility, politics, religion, etc., have on design goals. So skip around, read the parts you like and avoid parts that you don't agree with. Maybe later you will go back to the skipped parts. I hope.