01 Dec Early-Stage Plans for an Integrative Space Make a Concept a Reality

Currently I’m working with a chiropractor who is expanding his business and wants to build his own medical building.  He doesn’t have all the land acquired; he doesn’t have a blueprint; the construction may be 2-4 years away; and he’s still determining staff needs.  Oh, and he’s not local so we’re working long-distance.

Contrary to what you might think, this is the perfect time to discuss how to create an integrative space.

Rather than retrofit a few integrative space principles into an existing structure, we are talking about how to design the new building to support optimal healing.  Rather than making do with what’s there, we get to create what’s there.

His foresight led him to reach out when his new medical facility was still in the “napkin stage”—sketches and rough ideas.  We are creating and un-creating as the project unfolds—-always mindful of the underlying goal of having a space built with healing principles from the ground up.

Here’s a glimpse at what we’re doing at this early juncture:

1. Determining where to best place the building by looking at the topography of the land through photos and plat maps. Based on tree lines, his future landscape plans, and the road, we can find the “sweet spot” where the medical building will relate the best to its environment.
2. Deciding where to put the front door of the building, taking into consideration his personal affinity toward specific directions and some prevailing winds that come from the northwest.
3. Concepting for workflow and productivity. Thinking through how the doctor moves through his existing clinic, we can duplicate some of the paths that function well in terms of layout and create new ones that will improve his flow.
4. Planning with foresight for growth. The doctor is planning his business (and his building) for the future—-not based just on an increase in patient numbers and patient offerings, but adding another chiropractor or two to the team, a nutritionist, a nurse practitioner, and the ability to offer classes.
5. Defining overall intentions behind the building—-healing being one crucial aspect. Words like integrity, reliability, joy, security are also being factored into the choices made for design and health.

Above all, we are working together on a building that doesn’t yet exist but we are setting its template now.  Using photos, emails, and phone calls, his new clinic is becoming a reality although there’s nothing yet to see.

Yes, this is the perfect time to begin the process of creating an integrative space.  Before the physical version gets in the way.