Susan Francis
3rd March 1952 – 29th April 2017
B.A., A.A. Dip., MARCA, AfH Programme Director
It is with great sadness and a huge sense of loss that we announce the peaceful death of Susan Francis on Saturday 29th April 2017.
Susan has been involved with Architects for Health since its beginnings, and more recently has been its Programme Director. Her contribution to the great success that AfH, the AfH Student Awards and the European Healthcare Design Congress currently have has been profound. She will be so greatly missed.
Obituary – written by John Cooper, director of healthcare specialist John Cooper Architecture
Our mission
Architects for Health (AfH) believes that the spaces of healthcare have an important effect on the well-being of patients, their friends and families, and that good design can positively influence patient outcomes.
We work to bring about well-designed and restorative health facilities, through enabling conditions for this change, both through our membership and with wider health institutions and communities.
By sharing ideas, experiences and examples, we are building knowledge networks that inform and support the future design of high-quality healthcare environments.
Find out more about us.
Join us!
AfH has a current membership of about 500 people who share our values across healthcare planning, design, and delivery. Become a member and get access to this expanding network.
Other benefits include early-bird access to events, information exchange and collaboration, CPD opportunities and support for ideas for AfH activities and projects.
Events
THE EUROPEAN HEALTHCARE DESIGN 2018 11-13 June 2018
The Call for Papers is now open for the fourth European Healthcare Design 2018 (EHD2018) Congress & Exhibition, around the theme of ‘Utopia or dystopia? Visioning the future of health’ – Deadline 8 December 2017.
Organised by:
Guidance
Healthcare design guidance – mainly Health Building Notes and Health Technical Memoranda – are a vital part of health facility design but this guidance is now increasingly out of date and suffering from lack of recent investment.
Architects for Health have taken the initiative and held an industry-wide Round Table in late 2016 to debate the future of guidance.
- The conclusions and recommendations from the Round Table were wide-ranging and the full report can be viewed here
- AfH were also asked to conduct a survey across the industry and all who use or have used design guidance are invited to take the survey here
News
Senses and Hospitals
Two two-day workshops (most likely in April and June) on the senses and hospitals to hopefully develop a collaborative bid to the Wellcome Trust involving architects, artists, academics and others. If you are interested please contact Victoria Bates at victoria.bates@bristol.ac.uk
British Medical Auctions
For Project Teams involved in refurbishment or redesign. A service that will take old equipment or medical devices and send them to developing healthcare economies around the world. Proceeds from the sale of such equipment returns to the hospital Trust/Hospital Group for re-investment. Go to http://www.britishmedicalauctions.co.uk/ for additional information. Or write to paul.sherman@britishmedicalauctions.co.uk
Evidence Space
A platform organised by British Gypsum social media to share knowledge from Evidence Based Design academics, researchers, designers, clients and building users. Contributions from members of AfH would be welcome for publication on the website. Please go to http://www.british-gypsum.com/evidence-space/heal/evidence-based-design-in-healthcare for more information. Or write to Carly Lunt at carlyl@cibcomms.co.uk to discuss articles/research you may have written.
Institute of Contemporary Arts
Upcoming succession of events. ‘What is the social in architecture?’ The series broken down into three days spread over 2017/18, consisting of a participatory training/skill session and a more public presentation of exemplary work in this area. Day 1 is 24th November and will focus on issues around public housing in changing political contexts. If you are interested please contact members@architectsforhealth.com for more information. Only one person from AfH will be accepted as places are limited, so first come…
Student Design Awards 2018
The Student Design Awards 2018 – more information to follow soon!
The AfH Student Design Awards challenge students of architecture and design to explore innovative and compassionate design for health and social care settings.
Previous events
AfH @ IHEEM CONFERENCE 10-11 October 2017
AfH will be exhibiting member projects on our stand at this year’s IHEEM conference which will take place on 10-11 October in Manchester. The stand is bigger than ever this year, providing a great networking base and opportunity to promote our Members and their schemes – Submission of member’s projects
Come and visit us on stand G11. VIP status is awarded to all NHS employees, members of Architects for Health and IHEEM members. To register please visit http://www.healthcare-estates.com/vip-scheme/