Simulating Healthcare Spaces through Virtual Reality

This article explains how Virtual reality (VR) isn’t just for fun and (video) games anymore. It’s helping solve real-world problems in healthcare design and construction. VR as a business tool is clearly reaching an important threshold. Sanford Fargo Medical Center in Fargo, N.D., turned to VR to experience its $500 million facility before it was built. The project team relied on VR to aid decision-making and design review for critical spaces and architectural elements, using approaches tailored to the participants and goals of each situation.Using the Virtual Reality Design Lab at the University of Minnesota,HKS Architects joined a team of Sanford Fargo Medical Center project leaders that included the directors of facilities management and nursing at a simulation event led by contractor Mortenson Construction.