How to Design High Performing Senior Living Facilities: 8 Insights for Architects
Strong senior living design starts early. Discover insights on microclimate, acoustics, and ventilation to reduce risk and improve comfort.
Sector: Healthcare
Creating World-Class Healthcare Environments
Resilient and reliable healthcare spaces
We address critical challenges in healthcare facility design to help realize goals in patient care and safety. Our expertise focuses on optimizing ventilation to prevent infections, ensuring superior air quality, enhancing patient privacy through acoustic design, and controlling vibrations for sensitive medical equipment. By tackling these complex issues, we help create world-class healthcare facilities that meet regulatory standards while enhancing patient comfort and care delivery. Our innovative solutions empower healthcare providers to focus on healing in efficient, sustainable spaces that benefit both patients and communities.
Addressing healthcare challenges
Modern healthcare projects face many challenges to meet and exceed patient care and clinical excellence. Emphasizing patient-centered care, these environments must integrate advanced technologies and supportive services that enhance both physical and mental well-being while meeting regulatory and safety standards and ensuring resilience in a changing climate. The need to adapt quickly to changing healthcare demands and provide flexible, long-term solutions while improving patient care and optimizing efficiency will help set healthcare facilities apart.
The right insights at the right time
From proposal to development and daily operations, we have the right experience and expertise to solve healthcare facility project challenges. Explore services for every stage of the healthcare building lifecycle.
Services
- Air quality assessments
- Noise assessments
- Pedestrian and thermal comfort
- Energy and water modeling
Design services
- Wind impacts on façade, structure and access systems
- Building enclosure optimization
- Pedestrian and thermal comfort
- Renewable energy
- Sustainability and resiliency
- Air quality assessments
- Ventilation and infection control
- Solar impact studies
- Glare and daylighting
- Heliport turbulence and rotor downwash assessments
- Acoustics performance
- Environmental noise
- Aeroacoustics
- Vibration
- Wind-driven rain management
- Snow loading
- Falling ice and snow
Services
- HVAC commissioning
- Enclosure commissioning
- Wind-blown dust management
- Noise & vibration monitoring
- Air quality monitoring
Services
- HVAC performance verification
- Energy and water modeling
- Sustainability and WELL certification
- Decarbonization consulting
- Waste management
- GHG emission inventories
- Noise and vibration monitoring
Services
- Air quality assessments
- Noise assessments
- Pedestrian and thermal comfort
- Energy and water modeling
Design services
- Wind impacts on façade, structure and access systems
- Building enclosure optimization
- Pedestrian and thermal comfort
- Renewable energy
- Sustainability and resiliency
- Air quality assessments
- Ventilation and infection control
- Solar impact studies
- Glare and daylighting
- Heliport turbulence and rotor downwash assessments
- Acoustics performance
- Environmental noise
- Aeroacoustics
- Vibration
- Wind-driven rain management
- Snow loading
- Falling ice and snow
Services
- HVAC commissioning
- Enclosure commissioning
- Wind-blown dust management
- Noise & vibration monitoring
- Air quality monitoring
Services
- HVAC performance verification
- Energy and water modeling
- Sustainability and WELL certification
- Decarbonization consulting
- Waste management
- GHG emission inventories
- Noise and vibration monitoring
brigham-and-womens-hospital-helipad,sunnybrook-health-sciences-centre-helipad
United States
Brigham and Women's Hospital Helipad
Detailed analysis and mitigation recommendations for a relocated helipad
Canada
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Helipad
Sunnybrook’s new rooftop helipad provides faster access to Canada’s largest trauma centre.
How we help
We collaborate and support your vision with technical expertise across every climate and performance engineering discipline. Create more welcoming healthcare facilities that exist in harmony with their environment and community.
Design and build hospitals and medical facilities that deliver outstanding patient care with our interdisciplinary technical expertise. Optimize almost every aspect of your healthcare environment for better outcomes.
Create safer environments for patients, especially those with weakened immune systems, with our advanced expertise in ventilation optimization. We will help you design mechanical systems that protect air quality, preventing the spread of infections, and maintaining patient and practitioner safety.
Safeguard patient privacy and create more comfortable spaces with our acoustic design capabilities. This extends to waiting rooms and common areas, enhancing the overall patient experience.
Create environments that better support sensitive medical equipment with our vibration control expertise. We help ensure that your facility can house and operate advanced medical technologies effectively.
Holistic engineering solutions
Healthcare facility design challenges are complex. Our holistic suite of services offers climate responsive design and human-centric solutions that maximize performance and minimize impact.
Patient health, safety, and comfort
At RWDI, we understand that patient health, safety, and comfort are paramount in healthcare facilities. We specialize in optimizing ventilation systems to ensure clean, fresh air circulation, reducing the risk of airborne infections. Our acoustic expertise helps create tranquil healing environments by minimizing disruptive noise. We also address vibration concerns, ensuring sensitive medical equipment functions optimally and patients experience undisturbed rest.
Helipad design, safety, and testing
When it comes to helipad design, we’re at the forefront of rooftop helicopter operation and safety. We consider the impacts of the environment on helicopter operations and the impacts of the helicopter operations on the environment. We provide mitigation solutions for helipad design and guidance for helicopter operations to ensure the safety of patients and the community.
Sustainable and resilient facilities with climate-aware design
Climate-aware design is integral to our healthcare solutions. We help you create sustainable and resilient facilities that reduce energy and water consumption without sacrificing functionality. Our innovative approaches to natural ventilation, daylighting, and efficient HVAC systems not only lower operational costs but also contribute to an enhanced healing environment. By integrating sustainable design principles, we ensure your healthcare facility is both environmentally responsible and conducive to patient recovery.
Top 5 related services
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FAQs about our healthcare services
Still have questions? Contact us.
We use advanced air quality modeling, monitoring, and HVAC system analysis to ensure compliance with ASHRAE standards and healthcare-specific guidelines. Our services help maintain proper filtration, pressure differentials, humidity control, and airflow patterns to minimize airborne infection risks.
Yes, we provide comprehensive sustainability consulting and commissioning services to help healthcare facilities meet LEED, WELL, and other green building standards. Our team ensures that energy efficiency, air quality, thermal comfort, and occupant wellness are prioritized throughout the project lifecycle.
Absolutely. Our acoustical engineers assess and mitigate noise and vibration issues that affect patient rest, staff performance, and privacy. We ensure compliance with FGI Guidelines and other relevant acoustic standards for healthcare environments.
Our building commissioning services verify that all systems — HVAC, lighting, controls, etc. — operate as intended. We identify performance gaps, optimize system integration, and ensure facilities run efficiently, reliably, and comfortably for both patients and staff.
We use CFD modeling, wind tunnel testing, and local wind data to evaluate wind patterns, turbulence, and rotor downwash around heliports. This helps ensure safe flight operations, protect nearby buildings and pedestrians, and comply with FAA or Transport Canada guidelines. Our assessments guide helipad placement and approach paths for optimal safety and performance.
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