brg3s Architects completed the design for the multi-disciplinary UTHSC Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation located in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation is the first facility of its kind in the state of Tennessee, and one of the first in the United States, pioneering the concept of cross disciplinary facilities for the healthcare field. This new step in higher education seeks to elevate the student experience by offering an immersive clinical environment and more purposeful means of connecting to staff, peers and patients.

The University of Tennessee Memphis campus has historically struggled to act as a campus should, offering little in the means of safe pedestrian spaces or consistent visual aesthetics due to its quickly evolving, urban environment. In an attempt to introduce a cohesive element into the campus landscape, the C.H.I.P.S. building, in addition to many other ongoing efforts by the UTHSC administration, acts as a modern junction between the diverse campus variables, responding to multiple notes of form, materiality and function.

Fashioning connections both physical and figurative, the CHIPS building also provides a means of progressive student learning. Each classroom experience is designed to provide immersive situations which imitate real-world functions of staff and patient flow. Interior spaces can be transformed based on the needs of multiple healthcare disciplines. Hallways and corridors provide inviting spaces for peers to discuss and collaborate between classes. Together these elements act as a tool which continues push the boundaries of healthcare education.

Architect: brg3s Architects
Design Team: Brett Ragsdale, Jason Jackson, Kate Haywood
Photography: Tim Hursley