The American Institute of Architects, the AIA Foundation and architect-engineer HOK are joining forces to bridge the gap between research and practice in the area of design and health. Under a memorandum of understanding signed last month, HOK, in collaboration with the AIA’s Design and Health Research Consortium, will hold as many as four focus groups in cities across the U.S. to evaluate existing research and identify practice-focused needs for future research to support designing for health.
"This is an opportunity for the AIA, with HOK, to bring in a network of clients and designers who will help the AIA and the consortium teams to understand how research can be most helpful in practice and what may be missing in research in terms of how it's geared toward practice," says Marta Zaniewski, AIA's director for industry relations. "HOK is a great debut partner for the consortium," says Zaniewski. AIA and the consortium hope to add to the list of firm-partners, she adds.