If we know how it works, we can design it

Research
Aside from project assignments Gortemaker Algra Feenstra is conducting research and participating in competitions. We work independently on research questions and design based research, because we value keeping an open and fresh perspective as well as anticipating developments within our field of expertise.

Research through design

Conducting our research often demands an integral approach, which is why we also form partnerships with parties in other disciplines. We’re conducting research in collaboration with BNA Research, creative industries fund, TNO and the European Union.

Gortemaker Algra Feenstra has built an extensive body of knowledge and expertise over the years, but we will always keep a critical view on our own development. It is precisely this drive for acquiring knowledge and innovating that helps us build this expertise. By combining design-based research with scientific knowledge, literature studies, practical experience and evidence based design we’re able to come up with innovative concepts for the health care industry as well as other industries. This enrichment of knowledge adds extra value to the strong conceptual guiding principles within our assignments.

Healing Environment

Gortemaker Algra Feenstra is involved in multiple research projects on improving health. These researches address several issues. For example, the number of people suffering from dementia will rapidly increase in the coming years as a result of the aging population. For us, this is a topic for a research project. Another issue is prevention and recovery in hospitals. Hospitals are finding it difficult to keep their patients active. We can also translate this issue into a fitting research question.

Thanks to scientific research there’s more and more knowledge on the influence of environmental factors on the progression of the disease and the spatial experience for patients and residents. Building on the idea that ‘If we know how it works, we can design it’, scientific research and practical experience are the foundation of our research. A lot is known about among others: the impact light has, the importance of exercise, the effects of sound or the feeling of temperature. But how we can translate these scientific results into a ‘design’ is the innovation that we as a firm are trying to develop through these researches.