Insights
May 7, 2025 _ insights
AR in the ER
By improving a long-standing communication problem between architects and clients, Augmented Reality (AR) allows the design process to be quicker, nimbler, and more cost-effective. This technology helps optimize the design process by reducing or eliminating the learning curve faced by clinical teams and C-suite leaders around understanding 2D drawings.
In our recent presentation at the American Society for Healthcare Engineers (ASHE) Region 6 Conference, we looked at the use of AR in a renovation project GBBN designed for Children’s Minnesota. The project included redesigning the waiting, triage, and fast track processes in an existing emergency department. The design team leveraged AR to communicate the design and help stakeholders —including clinicians, C-suite leaders, facilities and ancillary staff — understand space at full scale.
Our presentation showed how AR was used to convey the design to all and demonstrate potential design options for the ER’s front area. It also shared how using AR allowed design options to be quickly evaluated based on the project goals by all stakeholders who were at the same meeting. By enabling in-depth discussions across stakeholder groups, our intentional, experienced use of AR was integral to facilitating this process and finding the right solutions for everyone.
During schematic design, AR was used to help stakeholders evaluate three design options and subsequently provide real time feedback. In a survey taken after using AR during schematic design, 100% of the respondents stated that AR helped them better understand the design concept.
In the following phase, design development, stakeholders used AR to review the upfront processes and fast track rooms of the emergency design, including specific elements like door location. From macro to micro design decisions, AR helped guide a productive process and facilitated better understanding than drawings alone.
See our presentation here.
Michael Grage, AIA is a principal at GBBN. For Michael, healthcare architecture is a collaborative process of conversation and discovery that surfaces the right solutions to his clients’ biggest challenges. Working with nursing staff, doctors and caregivers, Michael uses his 20 years of experience in design and project management to ensure that every voice is heard. By deploying the right technologies and tools, Michael helps teams streamline the design process while helping project stakeholders better understand their physical space and how different design options will impact its function and feel. Michael’s recent projects include Mercy Health’s Kings Mills Hospital, and a new cancer care facility for Christus St. Vincent Hospital.
Kirsten Miller is an associate and medical planner at GBBN. She combines evidence-based research and user group feedback to create uplifting healthcare spaces for patients and her healthcare research has been recognized by the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA). A moderator of GBBN’s Healthcare Symposium: Caring for Providers, Tackling Burnout, Kirsten is passionate about “providing for providers” by giving physicians, practitioners, nurses, and specialists the kind of environments where they feel energized to deliver the best care possible.
