Hitanshi Vaidya
Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, Bachelor of Science Architecture
︎
#HealthbyDesign differs in terms of context. When the two terms stand alone, like most people, I would associate them with two different schools of thought. Especially when, stereotypically, you would find healthcare work and design work on opposite sides of the influential spectrum. Healthcare being a very respected and “hardcore” profession, while design work often holds a stigma of being too abstract and “useless”. To provide context, I'm holding design in the same school of thought as art, therefore leaning more conceptual and stereotypically “less valuable”. By no means am I stating that is where I stand, I’m simply stating what comes to mind when you hold the two terms-Health and Design-apart from each other. However, health ‘and’ design would constitute a different connotation entirely. It implies the two are related and intertwined, it created a wholeness that negates the sterile nature of the previous idea. Health and Design must be held in the same context as each other because they’re
probably the two most fundamental building blocks of the human experience. Moving away from contemporary contexts, maintaining health was the only way humanity was able to continue life. However, design–in its greater meaning of arts, innovation and engineering–was the only way to
develop society. Without the other, none of us would be here. This understanding is how I view the two ideas separately. As building blocks of humanity and the development from the
beginning of human life to where we are now. From the the early stages of medicine, documentation of survival in the form of cave drawings, passing down knowledge through these depictions, the development of tools to help hunting, advancing society through engineering and thus allowing time for cultures to develop via visual arts and performance–and history continues to show us how design through engineering and architecture allows for the growth of culture and advancement in sciences. The two ideas, design and health, are probably the most crucialelements of humanity. Interpreting the two together, allows for the further development of both areas. We understand how this works traditionally, but in contemporary contexts, the separation of the two worlds has created a dysfunction. By valuing one over the other, it creates discourse thatdamages that our predecessors have worked so hard to build. For example, funding cuts of the arts and design strip away the humanity and emotion behind why we try to develop healthcare.
For if we advance life sustainability, what would it even be for? What culture, entertainment and art would we be enjoying once we do achieve a “better” knowledge of the sciences and healthcare? Think of Health and Design as a yin and yang. They both feed into each other, and would not flourish without the other. Design itself has an element of science within it, an understanding of what humans want and need, and what society needs (either in celebration or
critique) influences what is produced. In the context of design in space, our built environment is what shapes our lived experiences on a day to day level. It goes without saying that the spaces we’re in dictate if we feel safe for the given context. That safety, or maybe even the notion of
challenging what we normally experience in the form of creative design elements in spaces, impacts the way our brain interprets joy, happiness, stress and isolation. Design of space is probably the most important design output that ties so closely with health and wellbeing.
Feature Project
︎Power Plate Pathways
︎DECLUTTER
Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, Bachelor of Science Architecture
︎
#HealthbyDesign differs in terms of context. When the two terms stand alone, like most people, I would associate them with two different schools of thought. Especially when, stereotypically, you would find healthcare work and design work on opposite sides of the influential spectrum. Healthcare being a very respected and “hardcore” profession, while design work often holds a stigma of being too abstract and “useless”. To provide context, I'm holding design in the same school of thought as art, therefore leaning more conceptual and stereotypically “less valuable”. By no means am I stating that is where I stand, I’m simply stating what comes to mind when you hold the two terms-Health and Design-apart from each other. However, health ‘and’ design would constitute a different connotation entirely. It implies the two are related and intertwined, it created a wholeness that negates the sterile nature of the previous idea. Health and Design must be held in the same context as each other because they’re
probably the two most fundamental building blocks of the human experience. Moving away from contemporary contexts, maintaining health was the only way humanity was able to continue life. However, design–in its greater meaning of arts, innovation and engineering–was the only way to
develop society. Without the other, none of us would be here. This understanding is how I view the two ideas separately. As building blocks of humanity and the development from the
beginning of human life to where we are now. From the the early stages of medicine, documentation of survival in the form of cave drawings, passing down knowledge through these depictions, the development of tools to help hunting, advancing society through engineering and thus allowing time for cultures to develop via visual arts and performance–and history continues to show us how design through engineering and architecture allows for the growth of culture and advancement in sciences. The two ideas, design and health, are probably the most crucialelements of humanity. Interpreting the two together, allows for the further development of both areas. We understand how this works traditionally, but in contemporary contexts, the separation of the two worlds has created a dysfunction. By valuing one over the other, it creates discourse thatdamages that our predecessors have worked so hard to build. For example, funding cuts of the arts and design strip away the humanity and emotion behind why we try to develop healthcare.
For if we advance life sustainability, what would it even be for? What culture, entertainment and art would we be enjoying once we do achieve a “better” knowledge of the sciences and healthcare? Think of Health and Design as a yin and yang. They both feed into each other, and would not flourish without the other. Design itself has an element of science within it, an understanding of what humans want and need, and what society needs (either in celebration or
critique) influences what is produced. In the context of design in space, our built environment is what shapes our lived experiences on a day to day level. It goes without saying that the spaces we’re in dictate if we feel safe for the given context. That safety, or maybe even the notion of
challenging what we normally experience in the form of creative design elements in spaces, impacts the way our brain interprets joy, happiness, stress and isolation. Design of space is probably the most important design output that ties so closely with health and wellbeing.
Feature Project
︎Power Plate Pathways
︎DECLUTTER