Practice Management

By Upali Nanda, PhD, Assoc. AIA, EDAC, ACHE, EVP and Global Sector Director, Innovation, HKS Architects. 

In 2006, HKS hired Dr. Debajyoti Pati, an experienced PHD, as “Director of Research.” This was a highly surprising move at the time—the title was uncommon in the architecture industry. Even in the years after, only a handful of architecture firms—and one art firm—have a research director role. Before Pati’s hiring, Big R “Research” was primarily the domain of academia. And firms did minimal—small r "research" to inform their projects. Healthcare as a typology was just starting to embrace the idea that design could be evidence-informed, which was first written about in 2001.  

Over the 25 years since, medium to large firms have increasingly employed design researchers, with many firms now boasting in-house research and consulting departments that include PhD researchers, clinicians, strategists, economists, engineers, and design thinkers.  

The trend has been driven by a growing demand for authentic and unbiased research. In 2008, HKS established CADRE, a 501c3 not-for-profit organization that promotes open-sourced research developed through industry and academic coalitions. How did the evolution of architecture into a research fueled industry come about?  

Research as an Investment 

In the design service industry, R&D is never as prominent as in manufacturing and technology. However, innovative design solutions are considered research by the IRS, and, with proper qualifications, architecture firms can receive R&D tax credits for such activities. With research now an accepted component of architectural practice, firms are turning their attention to the potential benefits of R&D investment.  

The industry is facing an explosion of innovation driven by billions of dollars in R&D spending. Most of this innovation is narrowly focused, related to technologies that improve process speed and quality of existing services offered by AEC providers. Meanwhile, broader challenges of climate change, systemic inequity, mental health, and evolving work culture are colliding with those of aging infrastructure and an uncertain policy and economic climate. Thus, beyond developing technology that optimizes existing architectural processes, research is now vital to provide strategic context to fuel innovation. 

A Research Roadmap 

Research can provide a roadmap for developing new technologies for existing services and understanding emerging market opportunities. It can also help develop new services and tools and improve the measurement of design performance in three primary ways. 

1. Foresight. Understanding “which way the winds are blowing” with foresight reports that look at market trends and are informed by the socio-economic and political climate.  

Example: HKS and CADRE’s Clinic 20XX study assessed the state of primary care in healthcare, drivers of change, trends responding to the drivers, and design implications. The post-COVID study produced design strategies for today’s ever-changing healthcare climate. 

Image: HKS and CADRE’s Clinic 20XX 7 key principles

More recently a partnership with the Center for Brainhealth and Brain Capital Alliance resulted in framing an entire design opportunity space of brain healthy workplaces, brain healthy housing and brain healthy cities.

Image: HKS, the Center for Brainhealth and Brain Capital Alliance defined factors of a Brain Healthy workplace

2. Insight. Informing projects on increasingly tight deadlines and budgets with timely insight and evidence that can help prioritize resources. 

Example: HKS developed a design diagnostic tool now used by all its healthcare design teams to methodically assess a current state to inform the planning process. Demographic assessment, market analyses, climate analyses, deep community engagement and methodical stakeholder interviews are now part of an intentional design process at HKS.

Image: One of HKS’s design diagnostic tools to aid healthcare design teams based on research

3. Impact. Measuring project outcomes is a task the architecture industry hasn’t traditionally embraced. Despite growing interest, clients rarely request post occupancy assessments. However, measuring outcomes is essential to break the cycle of design service commoditization. The resulting data allows us to better understand ways to achieve design excellence and to translate it to important outcomes such as health and well-being.  

Example: A recent HKS longitudinal study with university partner UC San Diego found that by integrating health and wellbeing principles in design, the university saw not just a decrease in energy use and an increase in environmental quality. The study also saw a reduction in self-reported student depression and an increase in health and wellbeing behaviors.  

Although findings of any study are rarely completely generalizable, the complexity of architectural design projects necessitates an investment in qualitative and quantitative data and competent analyses to advance innovative design.  

Realizing the importance of this approach, HKS has also made an ongoing investment in our living labs program that pairs researchers with design studios to advance experimentation and innovation testing and to develop new technologies, materials, and designs. The program includes measuring performance and well-being outcomes.  

Readying for Adaptation & Innovation 

Despite the frequent misuse of the term “innovation,” its essence is rooted in the ability to recognize opportunities that stem from the "wicked" (complex) problems faced by clients or society and develop solutions that create value and lead to measurable impacts such as improved client project outcomes, monetization of IP, or insights that influence the markets (and the stakeholders) the AEC industry serves. Research is fundamentally necessary to foster this innovation, and organizations are implementing internal programs, R&D processes, and governance structures to nurture it.  

At HKS, research and innovation initiatives are championed by top executives, including the CEO, President, and key sector leaders, who recognize the value of these investments. Additionally, internal programs like the research incubator/accelerator offer all staff the chance to dedicate time and resources to industry-relevant, timely, research-driven topics. The objective is to deliver tangible benefits in various forms.  

Image: HKS design strategies  for workplace brain health

These endeavors have yielded diverse outcomes, such as new reports, prototype designs, and tools. Notably, the widely circulated AIA Resilience Design Toolkit originated from HKS’s incubator program, spurred by a client inquiry that challenged conventional perspectives.  

Architecture firms must ensure their work doesn’t just chase the latest technology, but that it resonates with broader market and societal needs and aspirations. This requires active participation from architects, interior designers, urban planners, and design strategists in a dialogue with clients and stakeholders that is grounded in research. By actively engaging in R&D activities, the profession can more effectively contribute to solving client problems, creating Intellectual Property (IP) that can be scaled to provide broad impact and economic value, building research experience to create a learning organization, and sparking insights that shape the future, within, throughout, and beyond the built environment. 

Acknowledgements