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For immediate Release

WHR Architects’ Cadenhead Presents at Design + Health Congress

in Singapore
Addresses Future Trends in Critical Care

Houston, TX — Charles Cadenhead FAIA, FACHA, Senior Principal at WHR Architects will join an
international panel of healthcare and design specialists at Design + Health’s 6th World Congress +
Exhibition in Singapore, June 24. As a participant in a session on “Design + Health Impacts on Patient,
Staff and Visitors” Cadenhead will share findings from a recent WHR sponsored study “Critical Care
Unit Design, The Winners and Future Trends: An Investigative Study.”

Cadenhead’s research grew out of his involvement with the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM),
where he served as Chair of the Design Competition Committee from 2006-2008. Joined by his
colleague, Diana C. Anderson, MD, M.Arch, WHR’s 2008-2009 Tradewell Fellow, Cadenhead analyzed
the winners of the annual design competition, co-sponsored since 1992 by the SCCM, the American
Association of the Critical Care Nurses (AACN) and the American Institute of the Architects/Academy of
Architecture for Health (AIA/AAH).

“Our objective was two-fold,” says Cadenhead. “We wanted to discover themes that correlate with
therapeutic and supportive environments, and use the rich information available from the annual
SCCM design competition to perform a comparative data analysis.”

“The research yielded not only comparisons of planning and design approaches and concepts,” adds
Anderson, “they reflect changing attitudes toward patient and family centered care and
accommodations as well attitudes toward facilities for staff in the ICU.”

With issues of healthcare quality and cost on the front page domestically, research of this scope is a
vital tool for both clinicians and architects working in this vital specialty. In a 2007 UCLA Neurosurgery
report, “ICU of the Future” the authors forecast that Intensive Care will occupy over one-half of acute
care beds within the next decade and will be the focus of intense pressure to both improve care while
limiting cost.

“The high level discourse scheduled for the international forum in Singapore is an important step in
improving our understanding of the issues, challenging our assumptions about the way we provides
healthcare and advancing the state-of-the-art in facilities design,” asserts Cadenhead.

WHR Architects, Inc.

1111 Louisiana Floor 26 · Houston, Texas 77002
713.665.5665 phone · 713.665.6213 fax
whrarchitects.com
 Press Release
WHR Architects
June 24, 2009
Page 2

The International Academy for Design and Health (IADH) is a non-profit organization with an inter-
disciplinary network dedicated to the stimulation and application of research concerning the
interaction between design, health, science and culture. Founded by scientists at the Karolinska
Institute in Stockholm in 1997, IADH provides a highly visible international forum for promoting an
ongoing global exchange of research findings among scientists, designers, and industry.

WHR Architects, a full service architecture, interior design and technology planning firm. The firm’s
commitment to critical thinking is balanced by an ingrained empathy that results in both improved
project outcomes and positive working experiences for their clients. With over 160 people located in
Houston and Dallas, the 30-year- old firm is working on projects throughout the US for top–tier public
and private education and medical institutions. WHR was named the 2008 AIA Houston Firm of the
Year. www.whrarchitects.com
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WHR Architects, Inc.

1111 Louisiana Floor 26 · Houston, Texas 77002
713.665.5665 phone · 713.665.6213 fax
whrarchitects.com