8/6/2019 2003 Architecture Week

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Every hospitalarchitect strivesto create aphysicalenvironmentconducive to healing.Butan elusivechallenge in achieving thatgoal isunderstanding theinnermostt houghts andfeelings of the people who willoccupy the hospital.

Thischallenge prompted my architecture firm Astorinoto adoptthe Zaltman MetaphorEli citation Technique(ZMET),a research protocolthat elicitsinformation fromrespondentsbased on visualimages, metaphors,andemotions.ZMET mostoften usedin marketresearchstudies gave usanew perspective on the needsof patients,families,and staff aswe designedthe newChildren'sHospital of Pittsburgh .

The design startedwith a clearobjective, to create astate-of-the-artpediatric healthcare facility that wouldanticipate andrespond to the deepestneeds of itsusers. The existing facility isone of the topten children'shospitalsin the UnitedStates, so the newdesign wasrequiredto meetand exceedthe standardsof quality of the medical,professional,and supportstaff.

To fully understanduser needs,the team integrateditsexisting design processwith ZMETresearch protocols.ZMETwasdevelopedby GeraldZaltman,aHarvardBusinessSchool professor.It isbased on the premise that95 percentof thoughtoccursin the unconsciousmindandisnot capturedby traditionalresearch methods.Astorino'sgoalforusing ZMETwas to gain insightsthatwouldgive structure to potentialdesign ideas.

Research Process

We conducted29 interviews with patients,parents,andhospitalmedical andadministrative staff.Theparticipantswere askedto spenda week before theirinterviews collecting magazine,catalog,and otherimagesthatwouldvisually describe theirmostbasic

thoughts,feelings, andperceptions aboutboth theircurrent hospitalexperien ce andan idealexperi ence.

During individualinter views,participants discussedindetailtheirreasonsforselecting the imagesandthethoughts andfeelings they represented.Working with agraphicdesigner, each participantdirected the creationof amontage basedon prioritizedtho ughtsand feelings. The participants'montages anddescriptions, combinedwith the researchers'interpretations of these metaphors,conveyeda wealth of information abouttherespondents'underly ing needs.

The findingsrevealedboth surface anddeep metaphorsalong severalclear themes.On asurface levelforexample,recurring imagesof confusion andmazesindicatedfrustrations with the wayfinding in the existinghospital.On adeepermetaphoriclevel,feelingsaboutthe idealhospitalemergedasatransformativeexperience,providing "asense of renewal," asonehospitalemployee noted.

Reinforcing the fundamentaltheme of transformationwere three supporting deepmetaphors,or "keydomains":the needof patients,families,andhospital staff to have controlovertheirlife andenvironment,theirneedfordifferenttypesof energy,andthe needtoconnect with the "inside hospital," the "outside" world,with others,andwith oneself.

To distillthese results,we usedthe "Deep Design Filter," apatent-pending toolthat helpsAstorino to organize theideasuncoveredduring the ZMETprocessandtotranslate the metaphorsinto design solutions.ForChildren'sHospital, the filtersupplied aframework forinterpreting the key domainsof control,energy, andconnection.

Design Solutions

When thisinformation wasprioritized foreach type of hospitaluser patients,families,and staff the DeepDesign Filterhelped identify severalimportant humanandenvironmental design objectives.By refining theseobjectivesand supplementing them with conceptual

Before the research informean early elevation study hospitalfeaturedmaterials anthatfitwithin the community

A montage made by the parpatient reveals ideas about iand healing,an d the need and diversions when time sstandstill.

A redesigned patient room features"home-like" fabrics and colors,separation for a family area, andhidden medicalgases.

A montage of images selected by ayoung patient reveals some sadnessas well as the importance of color,toys,andaccessto nature.

Metaphorical Design Method by LouisD.Astorino, FAIA

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