Wellogy partnered with the Adena Corporation to bring new life to the former Lazarus department store in the Richland Mall. The major renovation from retail to healthcare provides a new maternity unit for the growing Avita Ontario Health System in the Mansfield, Ohio area.
Many companies are adopting a hybrid work model for the future. This change in work environments has and will continue to influence the way people use their homes. Our homes are not only places where we live but also office spaces, places to exercise, and places to play. Including the following healthy design ideas in your home can improve your overall well-being, both mentally and physically.
Incorporating these elements into your homes is a great start to bring a sense of wellness into the places we live. All of these elements can be designed into new homes and can also be added to existing homes. Take some time to consider how you can start implementing these ideas to improve your quality of life!
Contact Danielle King, IIDA, NCIDQ, LEED GA @dking@wellogydesign.com to share your products or insights on healthier design materials.
by Jennifer M. Bobbitt
The guiding principle of our work is to “create places of well-being to enrich people’s lives.” Driven by this ideal, our trademarked concept, Healthy Urbanism™, is integrating intentionally designed elements that help communities thrive and prosper. We promote the healthy outcomes of communities by working with partners engaged in designing a better way to live.
Wellogy (formerly Davis Wince, Ltd.) has been working with healthy home concepts for several years. We’ve partnered with home builders, manufacturers of home materials, and town planners to design a template for incorporating wellness into the home. Senior planners, designers, and seasoned veterans in their fields with knowledge and experience have all contributed to our mission to design healthier homes in pursuit of overall improved health and wellness. The year of COVID shook up the game and made us dig deeper for solutions and possibilities as we move into a new world with more remote working, learning, and enhanced safety protocols. The need for an efficient, safe, and “well” home has never been more apparent. We have broadened our thinking and our search for solutions by tapping into additional resources and innovations.
The 2020 pause in design and construction allowed us to engage with new voices and explore ways to contribute beyond immediate project needs. We took two varied approaches to explore healthy homes opportunities further, and both yielded interesting, marketable results. The top three ideas that rose to the surface in our discovery and exploration are:
We reached these conclusions through two concentrated efforts. The first approach was an internal design charrette, including our entire Wellogy team. The project addressed the need to incorporate the elements of Healthy Urbanism™ into a small town in Central Florida. The goal was to improve the services in the area so residents could have everything they needed within a 15- minute walking distance of their home, thus creating Healthy Urbanism™. The community was also in need of housing that would serve the current population and support new growth.
Our firm divided into teams and met regularly for six weeks as we researched, designed, and modified our concepts. We analyzed trends and challenges and brainstormed the ideal collection of homes for this area based on market needs. The final designs included:
We focused on creating pocket neighborhoods and providing options like age-in-place and ADU’s to co-locate support. The designs are flexible, inviting, and incorporated into the community, allowing residents to easily engage with needs, services, and entertainment and not rely heavily on transportation.
The second approach involved engaging with 25 University of Cincinnati Visual Innovation Studio (VIS) students. Working with the University of Cincinnati and the VIS class led by Associate Professor Aaron Bradley, we created a project overview for the design exercise. The VIS project challenged the group of students to explore two primary questions. First, how can healthy home environments improve their inhabitants’ social, health, and economic, mental well-being? And second, how does the design of a healthy home fit into and enhance the Healthy Urbanism™ formula? We provided architects and planners a team to support the students by responding to their questions and providing additional information.
According to Bradley, “This is a new program we created in response to COVID and the fact that students wouldn’t be able to have traditional co-op experiences, and many companies had innovation challenges that would benefit from students’ perspectives.” Bradley is an Associate Professor of Creative, Culture, and Social Impact Initiatives in UC’s Division of Experience-Based Learning and Career Education.
The 25 students presented the final presentation deck via a Zoom meeting to display their findings to Wellogy associates. Teams were encouraged to incorporate digital prototypes, images of physical prototypes, data visualizations, and interactive elements when possible and relevant (3D/SLA printed models, mockups, etc.). Compiling research from articles, interviews, and existing research data, they determined four key features of a Healthy Home- adaptable space, water quality/ access, maximized lighting, and air environment.
The students created consumer profiles and explored the option of designing spaces where people could age in place. “Something that I found very intriguing was the thought of aging with the home. I have moved around a lot so thinking about living somewhere long term never has crossed my mind. I do think it is important to think about though and how the home can adapt with the homeowner to be accessible/user friendly,” according to Chloe Pi, University of Cincinnati Industrial Design student, Class of 2024.
According to Gary Gray, Wellogy architect, and Healthy Homes innovator, the students were thoughtful and thorough in their designs. They even took the extra step to code graphics to provide a visual aide showing before to after images of age in place transformation for critical rooms in a home. Gray is a long-time designer and developer of homes throughout the United States and has worked for several large home builders.
Click the photo to see the before and after
Both exploration exercises yielded similar expectations for future healthy homes with flexibility, age in place, and homes incorporated into a walkable community. Wellogy continues to evolve their healthy home design concepts and create solutions for designing communities focused on wellness. Our challenge now is to expand the consumer’s knowledge and benefit of the healthy home, influence the market away from urban sprawl and look to the future full of innovative ideas to improve our quality of life.
by Jennifer M. Bobbitt
The Visual Innovation Studio (VIS) project challenged a group of 25 University of Cincinnati students to explore two primary questions. First, how can a healthy home environment improve its inhabitants’ social, health, and economic, mental well-being? And second, how does the design of a healthy home fit into and enhance the Healthy Urbanism™ formula? Wellogy (formerly Davis Wince, Ltd.) provided architects and planners to support the students by responding to their questions and providing additional information.
“I learned a lot about the design process through this project. Aaron Bradley, our faculty advisor, taught us to ‘fall in love with the problem’ before we even started forming solutions. By doing so, we could fully understand what needed to be addressed and had something to fall back on when revising the project,” according to Natalie Kunes, University of Cincinnati Urban Planning student.
University of Cincinnati Associate Professor Aaron Bradley teaches the popular innovation class and is well known to his students for challenging their thinking and pushing them outside their comfort zone of ideas.
“I’m constantly surprised at the effort it takes to get them (students) to push past the ‘safe’ answers at early stages of an innovation project. I think that by the time they get to university, they’ve had years and years of very linear approaches to education and a lot of classroom situations where there’s ultimately only one “right” answer that the test or the teacher has set up. Creative problem solving implies that there are multiple ‘right’ ways to solve a problem. Over the years, I’ve come to expect this, so I build in a lot of early work in this area at the start of every new project with students. As they get more comfortable with the idea that it’s OK (in fact, it’s encouraged) to push past boundaries and propose bold ideas, the creative process always gets a lot more fun, and the results are more impactful,” Bradley said.
The students were divided into teams, each consisting of multiple disciplines, and started their research and exploration. Each week, Wellogy staff interacted with the students numerous times to help ensure the project moved forward and involved complete information and mentorship.
“This virtual class setting, although not conventional, was the perfect think tank for possibilities. The past year has taught us to listen, learn and be open to new ideas and opportunities,” according to Kathy Kelly, Wellogy architect and Director of Strategy. Kelly was actively involved with the students every week as they researched and looked for ideas.
Chloe Pi, University of Cincinnati Industrial Design student, Class of 2024, said the research and design phase also sparked new ideas for her.
“I learned a lot about the research phase within the design process. I learned that topics unrelated to the prompt you have been given can be helpful and that it does not have to directly relate to the subject matter. It can be something as simple as understanding more about human behavior,” Pi said.
At the end of the five weeks, the students compiled their research findings and insights and packaged their graphics into a well-orchestrated presentation. Wellogy architect Gary Gray was impressed with the level of detail to which the students explored the healthy home idea.
“From materials like copper handles to reduce the transmission of bacteria and adjustable height bathroom counters and cooktops, the students addressed the adaptations for a healthier home and aging in place options,” Gray said.
Wellogy architects Gray and Kelly agreed; they learned a lot from their experience as mentors and found the information the students created very inspiring and innovative. The designs have sparked new conversations and ideas both in architecture and for aspiring students.
“There are things that have influenced what I envision my future home(s) to be like. I can incorporate small things into a current residence or bigger things like the kind of materials I use. But on a broader scale, how can I be more conscious of how my home functions with surrounding homes and communities,” Kunes said.
Bradley noted that this class was different due to COVID-19 related restrictions put on students this semester.
“Bringing us a challenge that has the potential for real impact was paramount. All too often students are given a very constrained problem set to work with, and the output is very tactical (redline a set of plans, design a logo, etc.). It was great to work on a challenge that asks larger questions of human behaviors and human futures,” according to Bradley.
by Jennifer M. Bobbitt
Can architecture affect your health? We passionately believe that it can. That’s why we’re working with partners engaged in designing a better way to live. From healthcare, senior housing, higher education, and our other market segments, the goals for each partnership are the same- to enhance and improve the quality of life by creating a new standard in the way we live and interact with the built environment.
We’re on a mission to incorporate elements of Healthy Urbanism™ into every project we deliver. What is Healthy Urbanism™? It’s the integration of intentionally designed elements that helps communities thrive and prosper. No matter what the size of the project, an impact occurs when the built environment is purposely designed for wellness, creating a ripple effect that places a priority on health. The result is a wellness-centered community with the potential for improved physical health, accessibility to medical care, healthy food, activity, and social interaction.
Our projects can be as broad as a surgery center in a new community to ensure better outcomes for its residents, and designing student dining halls with a focus on healthier choices, and as specific as designing buildings with sustainable materials that incorporate walking and bike paths to promote physical activity. At the heart of Healthy Urbanism™ is the drive to reimagine health by creating communities of wellness. We hope you’ll join us on the journey as we create places of well being to enrich people’s lives.
Wellogy (formerly Davis Wince, Ltd.) registered architect and principal, Matt Canterna, AIA is the architect and project manager for the New 18th Street Child Care Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH). The first phase of the design recently wrapped up construction and the facility is open to provide care for the children of NCH employees. To follow, Canterna provides insight and an “inside the design” overview of the many unique elements incorporated into this fun, fresh, and engaging facility for the pickiest of end-users.
The exterior design speaks to the brand and aesthetic of the growing NCH campus. The goal of the new facility is to be unique yet still convey the same sense of promise that every child and family feels when entering a NCH facility. A challenge was matching our two-story building to the look and feel of the campus composed predominantly of high-rise buildings. The solution was to use two colors of cast stone to complement the look of the rest of the campus composed mostly of precast panels.
The new Child Care Center was designed in two phases to allow for continued operation and the expansion of the building to provide care for more infants and toddlers. Phase 1 matched the current program size of the existing building and is designed and built in the parking lot of the existing facility. The program is operating in the new building and the previous center was recently demolished. Phase 2 builds the second half of the new building, which will double the number of children (and families) that they can serve. Phase 2 will be built in the footprint of the demolished existing building, and will also include a larger preschool playground as well as a staff parking lot.
Every square inch of the site is utilized. The new Child Care Center is located on a narrow, long urban site bounded by an artery street, city alley, and a major thoroughfare to the south. The existing child care center (building, playgrounds, and parent drop off) remained fully operational during the construction of the new facility.
The entire facility was designed to promote transparency and ensure total “sight and sound” of the children. You can see straight through the building in the center; the lobby, art room, extended learning areas- all open to the corridor and each other with full height glass along the corridor that promotes an expansive imagination and interest in other students, classes and activities.
Key features of the design include a large, central lobby with branded wall coverings, abundant natural light, double height ceilings, and a monumental open stair all serve as a great transparent ‘welcome’ to the building.
Also, unique to the design of the lobby is a book nook. This space provides teachers and students with an escape on a wet or blustery day when the playground is closed and promotes impromptu learning while students are waiting for pickup or checking in at drop off.
New to this facility is a full commercial kitchen and reading room. The kitchen allows for a chef to join the staff and prepare fresh and nutritious meals distinctively designed for the kids, instead of having food shipped over from the hospital’s main kitchen. This enhances the culinary offerings and reduces operating costs. Coming in Phase 2 is a reading room with computers to allow the center to provide break out lessons and activities for preschool and kindergarten students who are reading at an advanced level.
All infant and toddler rooms are on the first floor, with large open windows and doors to their age-appropriate playgrounds. A few key design elements to ensure continual sight and sound monitoring include an infant changing station positioned so that teachers will never have their back to the room or other students. Infant classrooms are paired, sharing a kitchen. The kitchens are centered and open to one another with a semi-circle design to promote a line of sight into the play area for teachers preparing bottles and food in the kitchens. The pairing of infant rooms also allows for staff flexibility, with aides able to float from room to room to support the needs of either classroom when appropriate.
Toddler rooms kitchens are also paired, but a sliding barn door that can close if one class is engaged in a quiet activity or nap time. The center of the classroom is open and spacious, for the flexibility of learning activities. The teacher desk is along the wall, with computer hookup to a large wall monitor so that teachers can pull up pictures and video to support their lesson plans. Large windows and door connect to their playground. The window sills are intentionally low so that the toddlers can look out. A sink – at child height, of course – is located just inside the playground door so that students can wash their hands coming in from play. Preschool and Kindergarten Rooms are located on the second floor in a similar layout and with the same primary design goals as the toddler rooms.
The new Child Care Center promotes wellbeing and development through unique design details. A quarter circle stair step was designed into a corner in each room, with three 4” steps to allow older infants to learn how to crawl up and down stairs. The stairs are covered in a fun, fuzzy carpet that is waterproof, stain resistant, and easily cleaned. The infant rooms also have a half-wall ‘vestibule’ for parents to check in, complete with a bench for parents to put the booties on their shoes to walk into the classroom if needed, and a built-in car-seat storage cabinet so if one parent drops off and another picks up, the car seat can stay with the child.
Security and safety were the primary design considerations. The facility has many security cameras throughout the interior and exterior. Parents are provided access cards to swipe in at the main door, and a video intercom is provided for guests and visitors. Exit stair doors and the elevator doors are also access controlled, to prevent the little ones from getting stuck/trapped/hide in the elevator or stairs. Additionally, playground gates all have alarmed panic hardware, to alert staff if a passerby is trying to enter the playground.
The design team worked with the narrow site to create an undulating topography that promotes exploration, changes in materials, and creates ‘destinations’ throughout the play space. The theme is ‘natural playscape’ – to reinforce the branding of the hospital but also provide a unique play experience that promotes learning through exploration rather than just dropping play structures on a flat site.
The design team wrapped the building with playgrounds so that they are accessible from every first-floor classroom and the south end of the building. This provides both security and a natural (and vibrant) extension of the classrooms with large windows connecting the spaces.
Built with all ‘outsulation’ – all insulation was continuous rigid insulation installed outside of the building sheathing to improve thermal performance. No thermal breaks with old school fiberglass batt insulation!
We applied a special UV resistant coating on the CMU wall that separates Phase 1 and Phase 2; this allowed us to protect the finished interior of phase 1 while saving cost vs. installing then removing a temporary cladding system on that wall. Most coatings are not resistant move than 60 days to the UV rays of the sun; we applied a coating that is resistant 180 days in order to provide the construction team time to erect and enclose the Phase 2 building before that coating starts to break down.
The lighting control system includes ‘vacancy sensors’ in each room. The difference between an occupancy sensor and a vacancy sensor is that a vacancy sensor requires a user to manually turn ‘ON’ a light, where the occupancy sensor automatically turns it on upon sensing you enter. This saves energy when the outside natural light is enough to satisfy the needs of the user when they enter a room, instead of the occ sensory assuming you always need more light. Both systems turn the lights off after a programmed amount of time after it senses you’ve exited a room.
The lobby lights also monitor the amount of daylight coming in through the curtain wall and dim or turn them off when they’re not needed.
by Jennifer M. Bobbitt
A place for medically integrated fitness…
The much-anticipated MC Fitness & Health opened in January 2016. A welcome addition to Delaware County, Ohio, it houses the second emergency room in the county, a fully equipped and staffed medically integrated fitness facility, physicians offices, physical and occupational therapy, sports medicine, women’s health, imaging, laboratory, exercise studios, pools, spa, café and community meeting spaces.
Before the opening of MC Fitness & Health, I had the opportunity to spend a day in the facility directing a photoshoot. As a member of the two firm design teams that produced the project- OLC Architecture, Interiors and Aquatics and Wellogy (formerly Davis Wince, Ltd. Architecture), I finally experienced the result of months of work and planning in our office. The facility was empty of patrons, but not without life. The energy was starting to build as the array of fitness equipment was in place; the pool was filled with calm, clear water, and the staff offices, once empty, now had post-it notes with reminders in place. When we returned three weeks later for a follow-up photoshoot, the grand opening for the fitness facility had just occurred, and the Emergency Department was preparing to open the following day.
The walls were energized with vibrant graphics, the cafe’ was open, one of the local high schools occupied the 25-meter pool making waves during their daily swim team practice, and the facility was engaging the community in activity previously void on this corner of Delaware County. We witnessed women socializing over tandem treadmill walking, a bariatric patient taking the stairs to the fitness area, a recent heart surgery patient receiving exercise equipment instruction and assistance from a trainer, medical staff enjoying a healthy lunch in the Dash Café, a young woman with a knee injury strength training in the weight area, a man jumping rope in the cardio studio, a couple walking the upper level track, patients in the physical medicine area waiting to see their doctors, training in the laboratory, a senior fitness class in the smaller pool, and preparations for a meeting in both sides of the community conference rooms. It was alive with people on a wellness journey to make their lives better, to make their bodies stronger, to heal. Over 8 hours, we ran into several of the same people utilizing different parts of the facility from the workout area to the café and waiting areas. The years of planning had evolved into photo-ready moments, capturing the vision of the team.
MC Fitness & Health is nestled in one of Ohio’s fastest-growing counties. Delaware County has seen a 58% growth rate since 2000, according to the Delaware County Community Health Improvement Plan. The updated estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau reports that Delaware County has approximately 189,113 residents.
A case for medically integrated fitness…
I am one of 189,113. Our family of 5 moved to Delaware County in 2000. Part of the big suburban sprawl in the early 2000’s, we built our home in a new neighborhood full of families with young kids. The community that in 2000 had one public outdoor pool and no indoor pools has seen incredible growth in population and facilities to accommodate the active residents. Over the past three years, I have come to realize the great value of easy access to medical care, the benefits of medically integrated fitness, and the convenience that an all-inclusive facility like MC Fitness & Health can provide to a family or individual with a complex medical condition.
Medical conditions can arise at any given time in our lives and in varying degrees of severity. Having access to outstanding care and convenient follow through for a recovery plan is key in times of medical upheaval. Our family logged thousand of miles traveling for medical needs and we found ourselves assembling and piecing together a plan of recovery to save our 13-year-old son. Three years ago, he suffered a major hemorrhagic stroke as the result of a brain aneurysm caused by a congenital birth defect known as an AVM. The condition was undiagnosed with no sign of distress until the morning it ruptured, a surprise to all of us.
From the onset and through the course of ongoing recovery, we have interacted with medical services requiring five brain surgeries, a two-month stay in the hospital, weekly lab work, speech, physical and occupational therapy, AFO and bracing, Botox injections, weekly visits for serial casting, to name a few. One complicating factor in the recovery plan was the piecing together of multiple services at multiple locations, some days spending more time traveling than the actual appointments. The care was outstanding, the traveling and coordinating- draining. To make life more interesting, our older son had knee surgery due to a bone fragment and was on crutches for six weeks and in physical therapy for three months. Then, to keep things entertaining and because we were getting used to our new life of medical issues, it happened again a year later. Another knee surgery for another bone fragment, crutches, therapy… then a fractured wrist. My older son’s medical appointments were at one location, therapy 15 miles away at another location. All the while, driving our younger son to the hospital (an hour round trip) from home for weekly blood work and to therapy requiring another hour-long round trip drive each visit, three times a week. We bought an exercise bike to have at home, bought lots of therapy aides, and joined a gym at the advice of both boys’ therapists. When you are dealing with medical conditions, life must go on. People must eat, sleep, work, play sports, and tend to everyday demands.
While the story is unique to my family, many face similar challenges when adjusting to life with a medical condition for themselves or a family member. Organizing, coordinating, and participating in healing efforts can be complicated by proximity to services and ease of use. Healthcare needs are best met when they offer convenience and affordability. Facilities like MC Fitness & Health not only offer great convenience in times of medical disruption, but they provide an opportunity to be a proactive player in your health and future wellness. The blending of expert clinical advice and dynamic fitness instruction in a single location is critical in the overall cycle of care.
Inclusive facilities offer health benefits for the support team as well as the patient. Aside from the obvious convenience of scheduling and proximity of appointments, as a caregiver, I would gladly welcome the opportunity to walk off some stress on a treadmill or enjoy a healthy dinner in the café while my son is in therapy. To improve the best possible health outcomes, health systems need to recognize the proactive benefits of uniting clinical care with medically integrated fitness and dedicate resources to develop inclusive and convenient facilities focused on restoring health and preventing future health issues. When this is accomplished and utilized to its fullest, the patients’ cycle of care will improve, as will the entire healthcare system.
MC Fitness & Health, Mount Carmel Health Systems is located at 7100 Graphics Way in Lewis Center, just north of Columbus, Ohio. Lewis Center is in Delaware County and is approximately 25 minutes directly north of Franklin County, where the State’s Capital and The Ohio State University reside.
Developer: NexCore Group
Architect of Record: OLC Architecture, Interiors and Aquatics
Medical Architect: Wellogy (formerly Davis Wince, Ltd.)
Power Wellness: Fitness Center Management
Construction: Elford
Photography: Pease Photography
Copyright, Scott Pease/Pease Photography
