Award Winner: Interior Design Best of Year in Healthcare

We're honored to see our work with Memorial Sloan Kettering on The David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering recognized with Interior Design’s Best of Year Award for Healthcare. Big thanks to Interior Design and Cindy Allen for your continued support and Memorial Sloan Kettering for your partnership, fearless leadership and the opportunity to be part of this historic project.

With this project, we sought to evaluate how design and technology could improve the cancer care experience for patients, families and caregivers. Our hypothesis was that the building itself could play an active role in a patient's care by reducing tensions and anxieties common to traditional healthcare facilities.

This required unpacking the challenges of this high-anxiety experience, and what possibilities existed for turning an anxious time into a positive and productive one. We explored whether there could be more positive elements to cancer treatment, and reimagined the experience of “waiting”, converting the time patients spend at MSK into opportunities to accomplish something new. We worked with MSK to create a place of activity and inspiration by transforming waiting rooms into libraries, workout rooms, cafes, and more.

A patient’s ability to utilize these options is made possible through personalized Real Time Location System (RTLS) technology. This gives patients more freedom to choose how and where they spend their time. Untethered from their clinics, patients can roam the building knowing that MSK staff can find them when their doctor is ready and with the opportunity to connect with other patients who share similar interests if they choose.

All of this not only provides the patients with a more positive treatment experience, but can significantly reduce anxiety and stress for both staff and patients. By decreasing stress and increasing freedom, the hospital itself becomes an active participant in the patient’s care and treatment and refines what a hospital facility could and should be.