CAMAflage with Skyline Design
Inspired by patients and families to design dignified healthcare experiences, CAMA recognized the need to look beyond the cubicle curtain for alternative privacy screening solutions. Conversations with Skyline Design about this need in the marketplace ultimately led to a partnership and the creation of glass screens that promote dignity in care environments by providing the necessary levels of visual privacy. Along with the creation of this product, the collaboration also created a graphic matrix tool which aids designers in their selection process by recommending degrees of transparency based on the unique requirements of varying healthcare spaces.
To inspire ideas for the collaborative project, the CAMA Lab compiled research on dignity, privacy and visibility. The findings of these studies emphasized the need for patient autonomy and privacy with respect to the body, the environment, and information. In the same respect, other studies stressed the competing needs of staff visibility. CAMA realized they had to create a product that would offer a solutions to both competing parties.
CAMA looked to the history of architectural screening typologies - certain strategies resonated with us, including slat walls, louvers and shutters, and shoji screens. We also looked to nature for inspiration, collecting images of animals camouflaged within their natural environments. Using these findings and inspirations, we developed a catalog of organic patterning approaches that would allow for controlled calibration of visibility.
The catalogue allowed us to spot relationships and themes from research and patterning. Coupled with Skyline Design's expert insight on glass design, we developed a graphic matrix tool for designers which identifies a number of healthcare spaces -from private patient and exam rooms to public lobbies and lounges - offering common program requirements and information about each space as well as suggested applications for the use of glass privacy screens and the recommended levels of transparency.
Skyline Design then translated our vision into glass products. The resulting solution utilizes a layered approach to create the desired level of transparency that best suits the requirements of the space. Full scale mock-ups have begun and will be revealed at the 2018 Healthcare Design Conference in Phoenix, Arizona this November.
CLIENT: Skyline Design; Chicago, IL
SCOPE: Visioning & Strategy Consulting for Product
