Material health: Metal fabric in healthcare design

by tanya_martins | October 30, 2024 2:38 pm

By Dale Payne

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Pandemic-level illness, a nationwide mental health crisis, and healthcare worker burnout are fueling a reimagined future for America’s healthcare infrastructure. This movement is made evident by the 2024 AIA Consensus Construction Forecast,¹ which projects a pattern of stable growth for healthcare will continue, producing an increase in spending of around 3.5 percent annually this year and next. Healthcare was one of the few major construction sectors that did not see a decline during the pandemic.

As the demand for innovative hospitals, behavioral health centers, and ambulatory clinics continues to rise, woven metal fabric is an attractive, resilient, and dynamic material that can be used to construct positive patient experiences and built environments that support physical and mental healing.

Why metal fabric?

Many architectural materials have a place in healthcare design but must meet stringent performance standards before they are deemed appropriate for these demanding environments. Hospitals see round-the-clock, year-round use and experience some of the highest risks for damage. Anyone who has spent time in an emergency room can attest to the number of gurneys, carts, and equipment being wheeled around and banged against walls. The need for clean, sterile environments that reduce the risk of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) mandates rigorous cleaning regimens, using strong chemicals often.

Aside from its inherent durability characteristics, metal fabric offers a myriad of benefits once it is applied. Whether it is specified to enhance the energy efficiency, support occupant safety, and well-being, or expand the building footprint through enclosed mid-door and rooftop spaces, metal fabric is one material that can provide design and performance consistency in almost every area of a commercial building.

Beauty and biophilia

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Therapeutic environments that include access to and views of nature, daylight, and fresh air can reduce anxiety, ease depression, support cognitive function, and aid in healing. This design theory, known as biophilia, describes a person’s innate tendency to connect with other living things and nature. Biophilic design incorporates elements of nature into a space in a way that’s connected, complementary, and integrated. The goal is to increase people’s connection to nature and improve their health, fitness, and well-being. Biophilic design can use direct and indirect nature, as well as space and place conditions. Woven metal fabric provides a flexible medium to bridge outdoor access with applications in interior design, mid-door creation, and rooftop activation.

Weave patterns are available that can effectively provide sun shading over windows or glass facades without obstructing views. Within outdoor and mid-door spaces, metal fabric enables airflow while maintaining safety, such as railing infill or fall protection along rooftop perimeters. A wide array of metallic surfaces and color coatings, custom etching, and printing options provide unmatched design flexibility to incorporate branding, wayfinding, and design features within woven metal components.

Calming the noise

Noise has long been documented as a hindrance to healing and a mental health disturbance.² Metal mesh panels lined with acoustic fleece manage interior noise transfer when applied as ceiling panels, partitions, and interior wall cladding.

Durability

Designing exterior architectural features can be challenging, as natural forces such as wind, rain, and snow test even the most durable materials. Building products must be weather- and UV-resistant to combat the damaging effects of sunlight and corrosion-resistant when used in coastal environments and other harsh climates.

Metal fabrics are engineered to withstand prolonged tension, fire, heat, impact, and heavy loads. The highly durable metal surfaces can withstand even the harshest outdoor conditions without corrosion or deterioration.

High-quality woven metal fabrics are primarily constructed of American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) Type 316L stainless steel, which for more than half a century has provided architects with the means to express their design concepts permanently. This visual permanency is due to the material’s excellent resistance to corrosion, as the “L” stands for low carbon. This allows the surface to retain its original appearance indefinitely with little maintenance.

Safety and privacy

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Metal mesh can be used to define interior spaces and provide privacy with a modern aesthetic. It can be ideal for offering personal space to patients, establishing social distancing, or enforcing foot traffic protocols.

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Metal mesh panels can also be used to restrict access or enclose a space safely. The material can be extended from the point of safety into other areas to create a consistent and welcoming design. The high durability of stainless steel makes these weaves ideal for high-trafficked areas and behavioral health settings where anti-climb and anti-impact features are essential.

Safe materials for safe spaces

Rugged durability, biophilic properties, and safety benefits are the main reasons metal fabric is being specified for behavioral health environments. The distinctive function of these settings—providing physically and mentally healthy spaces where people can process and heal while maintaining a high level of safety and security—poses an ideal specification for metal fabric.

Today, psychiatric healthcare facilities, whether new or existing, must meet comprehensive accreditation standards to minimize risks to patient safety. Principles that support patient safety strategies avoid systems, assemblies, and materials that can be weaponized, yield sharp edges, or provide ligature points in all locations accessible to patients.

• The composition of highly durable stainless steel addresses the needs of behavioral health settings where design against impact loading is required. The strength of the material can be designed to resist the impact of furniture or other objects being thrown at it or a fully grown person running into it at full speed.
• The weaves specified for behavioral health feature small openings, too small for fingers to gain purchase. This gives the material anti-climb and anti-ligature properties. Anti-ligature is a safety measure that prevents people from using ligatures—objects that are used to tightly bind or tie things together—to harm themselves.
• Despite the strength of metal fabric when used as an enclosure, the material is still visually transparent so patients can enjoy views of the outside.
• Patients can also enjoy sunlight and fresh air when in a space enclosed by metal fabric. Biophilic elements are important to stress relief and healing.

Case study: University of Washington Behavioral Health Center

The University of Washington Behavioral Health Center is a fully integrated healing environment designed for individuals struggling with serious physical and behavioral health problems. The center offers these individuals clinical services such as medication management, psychotherapy, neuromodulation treatments, and medical and surgical care. It also hosts an interdisciplinary training and workforce development program focused on preparing and supporting a new generation of behavioral health providers.

With a mission to heal and uplift, the university sought to imbue its Behavioral Health Center with an aesthetic that fits within its campus context and pays special attention to safety and patient well-being.

Architecture firm SRG Partnership took on the project, focused on the owner’s goal to maximize inpatient safety and minimize the chances of self-inflicted injury. The firm had used metal fabric on previous projects and saw a strong potential application for the material.

Using a weave with minimal open space, metal fabric was employed to achieve biophilic security screening for patients in a courtyard terrace. The weave features a cluster of four cable wires woven onto a rounded weft, or horizontal, rod. The effect is achieved by weaving a cluster of four cable wires vertically, linking the rounded weft rods together. The product provides transparency and density while eliminating gaps or voids between the mesh material and the structure. This reduces the risk of stuck fingers, ligature, material sabotage, and damage related to human interaction with the screens. At the same time, the weave is 44 percent transparent, meaning ventilation, sunlight, and views of the surrounding trees and greenery beyond are uninhibited. Patients can absorb all the benefits of fresh air and sunlight and connect to nature while being safe and secure. 

Healthy materials for healthy spaces

Specifying for environments where the main function is healing requires thoughtful consideration of the healthiness of the materials selected to outfit the space. Metal fabric offers a range of sustainability benefits due to its inherent characteristics and the benefits it brings to a building once in use. Additionally, many metal mesh applications can contribute to LEED and WELL Building credits.

Material makeup

Many metal fabrics are engineered using stainless steel, which is a sustainable product due to its composition, durability, and recyclability.

• Composition—Stainless steel used in metal fabrics contains greater than
  60 percent post-industrial and post-consumer content recycled material.
• Durability—Extends the lifecycle of existing building stock, conserves resources, retains cultural resources, and reduces waste and the environmental impacts of new buildings relating to materials manufacturing and transport. Specifying durable stainless steel metal fabric reduces the need for replacement or repair. Additionally, stainless steel does not require a surface coating that can deteriorate and pollute the environment. The low-maintenance material does not require hazardous cleaning products to maintain.

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• Recyclability—Stainless steel retains its qualities throughout the recycling process. Recycling stainless steel involves no health-hazardous materials. During manufacturing, all the scrap or unused material is recycled and fully recyclable at the end of its lifecycle.

In application

Metal fabric panels reduce solar heat gain by mitigating intense sunlight when used as a building facade or exterior veil. The shade provided translates to energy savings through reduced dependence on HVAC systems. At the same time, metal fabric allows natural light transmission, providing effective internal illumination and reducing related energy costs.

Using a metal fabric facade can connect indoor occupants with outdoor spaces. Basking in natural light syncs circadian rhythms, resulting in better quality sleep—the number one predictor of health outcomes. These aspects are included in the WELL Building Standard’s Light and Mind sections. A space using a versatile material, such as metal fabric, conducive to seamless indoor/outdoor blending increases occupant connectivity to the environment. They also provide biophilic benefits fundamental to human performance, such as daylight, ventilation, and naturally filtered and humidified air. Biophilic elements have been found to support cognitive function, physical health, and psychological well-being.

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Case study: Care Resource Midtown Miami Health Center

Miami-based nonprofit Care Resource has a 40-year history of caring for the medically underserved at four locations. By 2017, the two-story headquarters in Midtown Miami could no longer keep up with the growing number of people facing financial, geographic, linguistic, cultural, and other barriers to accessing healthcare.

Enlisting design leadership from David Scott Parker Architects, and after a two-year capital and grant funding initiative, they broke ground on a new seven-story, 5,110-m² (55,000-sf) midtown Miami health center capable of bringing all services under one roof. The new facility would be able to offer comprehensive patient care, including medical, dental, behavioral health, case management, testing, and wellness screenings while serving as the headquarters for Care Resource’s four locations. The design also included ample parking for staff, patients, and those accessing the Food for Life Network Food Pantry.

The design takes cues from the Miami Modernist (MiMo) architecture style developed in South Florida and can be seen up and down Biscayne Boulevard, the city’s main artery.

For the exterior, architects incorporated a metal mesh facade system designed and powder-coated to exacting specifications to match the building’s MiMo aesthetic. Each panel features a woven-in-bar attachment system, with a round bar inserted into a mesh pocket. Eyebolts are attached to the round bar, secured to top and bottom brackets, and are used to tension the mesh facade. Intermediate pivoting brackets are spaced vertically and horizontally as needed and connected to loose weft rods inserted in the mesh. The facade system accommodates mesh reactions stemming from a three-second gust wind speed of 281 km/h (175 mph), per the Miami-Dade building code.

A separate aluminum louver system, designed to install outboard of the mesh panels, relied upon supports that had to penetrate the mesh panels. Engineers with the metal fabric manufacturer accommodated those louver supports by coordinating and incorporating cutouts into the mesh panels, allowing the supports to extend through the mesh where needed. The new health center features 1,710 m² (18,415 sf) of metal mesh.

The new Care Resource Midtown Miami Health Center opened in 2022 as a mixed-use medical office with space for administrative offices, a parking garage, and a 650-m² (7,000-sf) street-level pharmacy. With the additional square footage and updated medical and pediatric equipment, Care Resource expects to double its patient capacity within two more years, providing medical and pediatric care to more than 7,000 individuals, totaling more than 21,000 annual visits.

Notes

¹ Refer to the AIA’s “Consensus Construction Forecast” (January 2024) at aia.org/resource-center/january-2024-aia-consensus-construction-forecast.

² See the article by Harvard Medicine, “The Effects of Noise on Health” (2022) at hms.harvard.edu/magazine/viral-world/effects-noise-health

Author

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Dale Payne, PE, serves as chief engineer for GKD-USA and is a leader in metal fabrics for architectural applications based in Cambridge, Maryland. He supports the GKD sales, estimating, and production departments in developing new applications and completing and supporting all architectural projects. Payne, who holds a professional engineering license for the State of Maryland, earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, and his associate’s degree in engineering technology from Chesapeake College.

Source URL: https://www.constructionspecifier.com/material-health-metal-fabric-in-healthcare-design/

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