Your Mission, Our Passion: Inside Lavallee Brensinger Architects

Your Mission, Our Passion: Inside Lavallee Brensinger Architects – Emmaly Pense

I have been empowered to bring a set of valuable skills to any organization using technology. Through these interactions I ultimately developed my passion. A passion to work with a misrepresented minority, eliminate the stigma and take the opportunity to bring positive design to those who haven’t always benefited from patient-centric, therapeutic spaces.

This is part of why I have enjoyed behavioral health design so much, it’s a challenge that is unlike any other project type requiring a shift in how to approach design solutions. This means getting granular and understanding the very specific needs of clients and patients.

By inviting the client to be a part of the design process early on we can work together to create a story. While gathering information about them we can recognize the unique needs of everyone interacting with the built environment and understand their challenges resulting in a space that promotes psychological wellness and healing.

Now we can develop the solution and use visualization tools to effectively communicate the design. Enscape has been a vital tool in this approach that end users really enjoy. It allows us to evaluate ideas quickly, engage in faster feedback cycles and implement changes easily. By using Enscape to add detail and craft a feeling, the concept starts to come to life and enhances the design process. That is what makes Enscape a game changer, it eliminates the subjective interpretation of sketches and avoids misunderstandings. Rather clients can see and experience our vision quickly. From lighting to flooring and spatial flow to wayfinding, this tool elevates how we communicate the needs of patients, creating safer, more inclusive environments that simultaneously contribute to the comfort of staff members and visitors.

This technology has proven to be especially useful in behavioral health design. I have been able to use a live model to help clients envision their projects through an immersive environment, really allowing them to understand transparencies or even potential blind spots in key areas. We have used these visuals to collaborate with families on what their journey is like and how to alleviate stressors through certain design features that support patient autonomy.

Organizations have been able to take the renderings and walkthrough videos to the next level. Whether it be for marketing, fundraising, bringing awareness to their local community or even to educate their staff on how to better work with the patients in a safe space. At the end of the day what’s most important is the patient being able to get the care they need. Just knowing how our work can better the human condition makes for an exciting place to be in as a designer!

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About Emmaly Pense