6/6/2023 0 Comments Hdr projects los angelesOn your desk now: I’m fortunate that I get a chance to work on a variety of behavioral health projects and initiatives spanning planning, design, research, community engagement, business development, workplace mental health, and inclusion, diversity and equity. I went on to study architecture and real estate development and developed a passion to build better spaces that positively impact the treatment and recovery of individuals facing mental health issues.ĭescribe your design approach: Empathetic and problem-seeking, multidisciplinary and research driven, iterative and responsible, emphasizing whole-systems thinking/regenerative design. At the time, stigma around mental illness was high, access to care was a serious issue, and mental health environments weren’t conducive to healing-all of which made me want to change the status quo. That experience piqued my interest in how spaces significantly impact patients. Path to healthcare design: My education focused on psychology and neuroscience, and I worked in psychiatric facilities, private practice, and academic institutions conducting clinical research with patients suffering from severe mental health disorders. She finds behavioral health design her purpose and truly believes that the built environment plays a significant role in aiding this national crisis-she is dedicated to rising to the occasion and leading the solution. She’s also an active public speaker, recently presented the session “Regenerative Building Design Realities” at the 2022 SXSW Conference to discuss the environment’s impact on mental health. She’s also active outside the office, serving as a 2022 Member of the OSHPD Behavioral Health Task Force, working on developing the “Advisory Guide for Acute Psychiatric Facilities for California” with the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (formerly OSHPD) a studio advisor volunteer at the University of Nebraska Lincoln graduate studio and a member of the NextGen Mental Health and Architecture group. Zanjani is also a co-leader of HDR’s Inclusive and Meaningful Engagement committee, which advocates for the use of community engagement in the design process to create more equitable spaces. Additionally, she was recently the lead author an HDR white paper regarding behavioral health and virtual care. To validate design decisions, she helped conduct a research study and analysis on bed trends, which she’s currently working on getting published. During a predesign study for the Zucker Hillside Hospital, she worked with industry leader Frank Pitts in planning the new child and adolescent behavioral health facility. She also utilizes her background in research. Her recent work includes planning and diagramming for a new Behavioral Health Institute for King County in Seattle, a net-zero carbon behavioral health facility. Over the past three and a half years, Zanjani has made significant contribution to both the industry and HDR through project work, research, publication, advocacy, public speaking, and business development. In 2019, she joined HDR where she’s become a behavioral health design specialist, working on projects nationally and internationally. This inspired her to go back to school and earn a Master of Architecture and a Master of Science in Real Estate Development at Columbia University. After spending years on the front lines of the behavioral health crisis from both from a research and clinical perspective, Zanjani noticed the significant impact that spaces had on patient recovery and the urgency for better healing environments for this patient population. Prior to her career in architecture, Anosha Zanjani had an established career in the mental health field, working in psychiatric facilities, private practice, and academic institutions, where she conducted clinical research and worked directly with patients suffering from severe mental health disorders.
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