What’s more important: your genetic code or your zip code?
Can a designer keep you from having a heart attack? Kendra Kirchmer certainly thinks so, which is why she founded the Vital Design Studio and teaches future designers to create spaces with an eye on improving health outcomes.
“Designers have a key role in how built environments can make people’s lives healthier — and longer,” Kirchmer said. “Socioeconomic factors, healthy behaviors and physical spaces have a big impact on a person’s health. The distance of just a few city blocks can mean a huge difference in a person’s life expectancy.”
Laying the groundwork
The studio begins with students researching real-world locations, connecting with community members and learning directly from Philadelphia-based architect Louis H. Meilink Jr., a K-State alum and studio champion.
Once they return to campus, they form small teams that include at least one student each from the architecture, interior architecture and landscape architecture programs.
“Architects and designers with different specialties routinely collaborate to address the needs of a project,” Kirchmer said. “They learn from each other, creating a level of respect for the expertise they bring to the table.”
Building cities of the future
Student projects have ranged from a culinary school that doubles as a soup kitchen and job creator to a laundromat equipped with a mobile health clinic, public showers and outdoor green space for recreation.
Their designs tackle a variety of societal and health issues: housing affordability, food deserts, childcare availability, the opioid crisis and beyond.
They are limited only by their imagination. “The one unrealistic project feature is the lack of a budget,” Kirchmer said.” I don’t want to restrict their ideas and solutions with the bottom line.”
How will the built environment shape healthy lifestyles in the future? Kirchmer is optimistic her students will push the boundaries.
“The projects get more creative and thoughtful every year. They rethink what a library or a laundromat can be and its role in the life of a community,” Kirchmer said. “Our students are learning to use their talents to help people, and I’m excited to see what they do next.
