Carol Kartje, vice president and director of interior design at HKS, speaks to CID about designing for the healthcare sector, and highlights how interiors can help to facilitate the healing process
Born in Michigan, Carol Kartje, vice president and director of interior design at US architecture firm, HKS, was brought up in a world filled with art, design and architecture. Her parents cultivated her interest in the creative and she remembers being captivated by the multi-faceted nature of design from a very young age.
“My parents are both intellectuals. My dad is a retired professor, and he would always nourish the art in me. With the combination of the thinking, the ideas, the conceptual, the analytic and the artistic expression involved in design, architectural design kept compelling me,” she said.
Kartje has worked for 23 years as an interior designer and architect specialising in design for the healthcare sector. HKS is the world’s largest healthcare architecture firm in terms of project volume and has been for the last 15 years, with projects in over 900 cities in 55 countries. So far, HKS has completed 1,230 projects, covering over 117 million ft². The firm has also picked up 130 awards for its healthcare work.
Some of these projects which Kartje has been involved in include the Surgery Pavilion and Critical Care Tower for the Saint Joseph Mercy Health System. She has also co-authored an article on the Lacks Cancer Centre, which was only the second LEED certified hospital in the United States.
Introducing a relatively new concept to the Middle East region, Kartje oozed enthusiasm as she spoke to Commercial Interior Design about the new Danat Al Emarat Women and Children’s Hospital in Abu Dhabi, and expressed her extreme passion for designing for the healthcare industry.
What is your first memory of being interested in architecture and design?
My first memory of being compelled to do architecture and design was because of my neighbour. He was the first PhD architect at the University of Michigan. His home, and the way in which he described what he did, was amazing. He was the first catalyst, the first spark – and I was only about eight or nine years old at the time.
What formal training do you have in the interior design field?
Well, I only studied architecture, and have an undergraduate and graduate degree in architecture. If you were to have asked me as a student if I would do interior architecture, I would have been offended. I was a pure architect.
My very first job was in a boutique design store in New York that employed architecture interns. That job opened me up to a whole different world. I found my passion for interior design.
What is your experience in designing for the healthcare industry?
The first part of my career involved designing office spaces, child development facilities, corporate facilities and banks. But for 17 years now I have designed healthcare facilities. I have a particular passion for design for the elderly, and Alzheimer’s facilities.
Why healthcare facilities?
My grandmother had Alzheimer’s and now my father has it. This is a unique, very frail person that has such need, and we can make such an impact as designers if we are attentive to both the big and the little things.
With each project type, whether it’s a cancer care facility or women and children’s hospital, I immerse myself in the requirements for the special needs of those special people, and make sure that I fully understand.
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