If you have ever been admitted to a hospital, worked as a healthcare provider, or regularly visited medical offices for ongoing care, you understand the importance of the therapeutic space in which health services are administered.
Historically, architects have exerted immense influence over the operations of healthcare facilities, and their visions can even guide an institution’s entire philosophy of care. Today, Autodesk® has forged partnerships with experts on the effects of architecture, such as leading consulting group Stantec, to augment Revit®’s Building Information Modeling (BIM) potential. United with Forma, an Autodesk platform for schematic design, the Stantec partnership is but one illustration of Revit’s prominence in architectural judgments for healthcare facilities.
Leveraging BIM, CTC Software’s Suites of Revit add-ins aid Autodesk’s mission to foster a future of medical sanctuaries where healthcare providers have the technological support to efficiently and compassionately tend to patients.
Architecture’s Historical Impact on Healthcare Facility Design and Planning
The Kirkbride Plan, conceived by architect-psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride, notoriously dictated the design of roughly 73 psychiatric asylums across the United States. Underscoring the benefits of sunlight, fresh air, and patient privacy, the Kirkbridian system conceptualized architecture as a salutary vehicle.
Most Kirkbride asylums have been abandoned since the community health movement of the 1980s, culminating in the Mental Health Systems Act (MHSA). Pub. L. No. 96-398, S. 1177, 96th Cong. (1980), largely repealed by Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, 95 Stat.357 (OBRA). MHSA aimed to transfer mental health services from asylums to community-based centers, allocating federal monies to support outpatient community resources.
However, Congress effectively repealed MHSA in 1981 with the enactment of OBRA. Deinstitutionalization under the Reagan administration followed, shuttering most psychiatric asylums (including Kirkbrides), without subsidizing surrogate community clinics.
Nevertheless, the Kirkbridian spirit, animated by Revit’s dynamic functionality, persists in the architecture of contemporary medical establishments.
Revitalizing Design with BIM: Revit’s Remedy for Medical Facility Plans
BIM is Revit’s fundamental process. BIM supplies architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) teams with computerized 3D models of their building projects. These intelligent models learn from the data stored in BIM workflows, which inform ongoing evaluations.
A testament to Revit’s impact on the architecture of medical facilities is the Taussig Cancer Center, a Cleveland Clinic complex that invites the healing power of daylight into the building’s interior via pervasive glass paneling and skylights.
Partnering with Stantec, architects at William Rawn Associates prepared the designs from which the Taussig Cancer Center emerged. William Rawn Associates cite “3D digital modeling software” as an integral component of their planning process. In fact, The Taussig Center’s architectural team relied on an “intensive programming effort” to draft a plan that would encourage coordination among caregivers and healthcare professionals.
Autodesk has also allied with Stantec, announcing their cooperative effort, EVER RED, as an introduction to its 2025 updates to Revit. Autodesk’s Forma has been a key focus of the Stantec partnership. This pre-design software automates visualization and simulation, enabling comparisons of BIM models with analyses on markers like sustainability and the elements–indeed, daylight potential is one such analytical subject!
Forma subsumes a cloud network that allows Forma’s automated analytical reports to be shared with members of an AEC team, as well as external sources. This BIM-cloud collaboration promotes interoperability, which is crucial to a healthcare facility design that advances holistic patient care.
Crediting synergistic 3D modeling programs, William Rawn Associates recognized that its digital iterations of the Taussig Cancer Center elicited a facility that “fosters knowledge sharing and comradery among…medical professionals.” The firm extended this acknowledgment, stating that the client’s “comfort with digital tools has increased access to stakeholders, enriched participation, and expanded community outreach[]” in a description of its general planning protocols.
Human Nature: How CTC Software’s Revit Suites Move Healthcare Forward
Whether it’s a Kirbride institution or the ultra-modern Taussig Cancer Center, an interdisciplinary approach to medicine includes thoughtful architecture with a beating heart. CTC Software’s Revit Suites comprise BIM add-ins that move the needle toward a human-centric, integrative approach to medical facility design.
We have developed the BIM Batch Suite™, BIM Data Suite™, BIM Manager Suite™, and BIM Project Suites™, embodying extensions that intuitively work with Autodesk Revit and its partner programs to achieve warm and welcoming structures for those seeking medical care. Connect with our team to learn more.
