We may not be aware of it, but architecture touches every aspect of our lives. From office spaces to public spaces, the look and feel of a space has a definite purpose. In terms of health, this concern is all the more important as the people who frequent these places often need to be comforted. Keeping these important points in mind, Creative Designer Architects (CDA) chose to specialize in healthcare architecture. The firm’s managing partner, Ravideep Singh, joins the Sunday Guardian for a conversation about the firm’s interesting practice. Excerpts from an edited interview:
Q. Why did you choose a career in healthcare architecture?
A. After my post-graduation from the University of Illinois UC, School of Architecture, I majored in “Health Care Planning” at Cornell University, NY. My journey from there is a continuation of CDA’s two-decade quest to understand and innovate healthcare design in India. Creative Designer Architects was established in 2001 by my parents, Maninder Kaur and Mohanbir Singh, and I joined the company as Associate Director in 2020. Since then I have worked on several healthcare and commercial projects , including AIIMS Guwahati, Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai, Paras Healthcare, Kanpur and Sarvodaya Hospital, Noida.
I strongly believe in the communicative power of design – the ability of spaces designed with empathy to create uplifting sensory experiences. With a focus on combining seamless functionality and value-driven design, I aim to create environments that redefine the standards for quality healing facilities and positively impact surrounding communities.
Being born and raised by architect parents, I had a wide exposure to architecture from an early age. I have always been intrigued by the ethical capacity of architecture and its power to impact the built environment. With an innate penchant for spatial planning, I have always experienced a sense of satisfaction when conceptualizing forms and analyzing their impact.
The inclination towards health care was perhaps more of an intuitive appeal than a pragmatic one. I believe that healthcare architecture exemplifies architecture’s ability to balance environmental concerns and well-being. The obvious shortcomings in the Indian healthcare sector further strengthened this quest and I felt the need to dive into this space and attempt to make meaningful changes.

Q. What was your initial design vision and has that vision changed over time?
A. CDA began operations around the year 2000. However, my active contribution began around 2016. My vision began with a functional healthcare design that could create a healthy and equitable environment for all users. It was a huge gap in the healthcare industry at the time.
Today, as we speak, I believe the vision may have broadened rather than changed. Now we look beyond hospitals – our goal is to support community health and well-being. We explore how healthcare facilities could be used as an essential tool to create healthier, more mindful and equitable environments for all populations.
This can be seen in our projects undertaken in recent years, the most crucial being in the field of health. AIIMS Guwahati is one of the largest and most comprehensive health campuses in India. It has a strong focus on patient experience, health, wellness and sustainability. Another important ongoing project is the expansion of Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai. Designed to be one of the largest private hospitals in the city, it attempts to blur the lines between healthcare and hospitality and be a beacon for international health tourism in India. The upcoming Mix Nirogi project for Max Healthcare in Patparganj is a 419-bed medical campus designed on the principles of empathetic design, intelligence and resilience.
Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala Integrated Medical Campuses have been recognized during the pandemic for their responsiveness to Covid-19 and CDA’s underlying sustainability and wellness strategies. The upcoming Yashoda Medicity in Indirapuram is a model 1200 bed comprehensive hospital. Each department is designed to provide end-to-end care, that is, research – consultation – diagnosis – treatment and rehabilitation, all in one place. So far, we have successfully delivered over 150 projects across India.

Q. What have been the biggest challenges you have faced so far?
A. Every healthcare project is a challenge in its own way. Here are some of the challenges encountered:
reduce the high cost of construction and shorten construction times to generate faster returns on investment;
demanding construction sequencing for large urban hospitals with deep basements.
Health projects require greater involvement and offer more interesting perspectives for visualizing built environments. Hospitals embody carefully planned functional spaces where distinct medical programs are carefully intertwined to achieve seamless operational flow and resonate with high standards of care delivery. As a result, structural and electromechanical systems require a higher level of resolution to achieve streamlined operation and maintenance. What makes healthcare even more exciting is its unexplored potential for improving patient experience, care and safety that the facility can deliver beyond clinical care. This, for me, is perhaps one of the main reasons to pursue this niche.
Q. How has the pandemic affected your design practice? Have you seen a change in people’s mentalities and their demands?
A. The pandemic has exposed the inefficiencies of health facilities in terms of operation. Most people still believe that pandemics only happen once in a lifetime. However, there is a growing shift in the mindset of healthcare providers – particularly in terms of heightened concern over infection isolation, patient and caregiver experience (from a cognitive perspective) and, more importantly, to instill a degree of resilience in the establishment – ​​enabling a pro-active response against mass calamities and pandemics.
Q. How do you ensure that each project remains distinctive since you specialize in a single niche?
A. The design of health care is vast. Each project brings with it a unique set of nuances with respect to the medical program (which is based on its service area and respects the disease profile), the context and profile of the site and, above all, the specificity of each project in terms of vision that should translate into the spaces and experience of the hospital.

Noor Anand Chawla writes lifestyle articles for various publications and his blog www.nooranandchawla.com.