We’re proud to announce the new design for a Rural Health, Wellness and Teaching Center!

According to the Economic Research Organization at the University of Hawai‘i (UHERO) report “Rural Health Disparities in Hawai‘i” of August 2024, “We find notable disparities between rural and non-rural residents in our sample for every measure of health outcomes studied. Rurality has one of the strongest associations with overall health status among sociodemographic factors.”

Put simply, rural residents in Hawai‘i face significantly more health challenges than those who live in urban areas. Exacerbating this is a longstanding shortages of providers.

WhiteSpace Architects has a design that could help bridge that gap: a 24,000-square-foot health center that was created for a rural community on the Big Island with few health services.

Designed for a five-acre site, the WhiteSpace health facility was envisioned to provide primary and preventive care to people of all ages, serving as a comprehensive home to a patient’s primary-care practitioner and medical specialists, as well as family dentist and pharmacist.

The WhiteSpace design also incorporates a traditional healing center that would offer culturally appropriate indigenous practices for healthy minds and bodies.

In addition to providing critically needed healthcare, the WhiteSpace health center is designed to serve as a teaching and educational facility for doctors, nurses, medical assistants, dentists and pharmacists.

WhiteSpace Principal Laurel Swan, AIA, who served as lead designer, imagines the health center would offer residency opportunities for medical residents, allowing local students the opportunity to remain in their community for training and careers. Hands-on healthcare research opportunities in rural setting are rare; the WhiteSpace center would allow local students the chance to practice and study rural healthcare and indigenous health – an opportunity to “grow your own” from those who best understand that community.

The health center would, thus, provide permanent professional jobs from medical assistants to medical doctors.

The WhiteSpace design features a classic Hawaiiana, plantation-era aesthetic tailored to match the rural character of that specific region. To ensure that the center fits with the community scale, it is integrated into the landscape in color palette.

The two-story design includes breezy interior courtyards, outdoor gathering spaces, covered lanai and a covered porte cochere that leads to a central circulation area that will allow a natural flow to other wings. It would feel welcoming to patients and takes advantage of natural lighting and ventilation.

Even parking areas are thoughtfully designed: Instead of a monolithic garage, a parking lot meanders through the property to allow circular flow, as if along a lane.

This WhiteSpace rural health center is designed as a phased project to ensure continuity of care.

In a future phase, a separate residential building could be constructed. WhiteSpace believes that on-site housing would greatly benefit a healthcare training facility by providing students with affordable places to stay.

“As with all of our work, the design responds to what this rural community needs today, yet also looks ahead to the future,” says Laurel, who has headed WhiteSpace Architects’ Big Island branch since it opened in 2020 and is herself a resident of a rural community. “We believe that we have created a health center that could accommodate the changing needs of a rural community for many decades into the future.”

All WhiteSpace designs are driven by the specific project site and a specific community.

Laura Ayers, AIA, principal, and Rebecca “Becky” Ziebelman, Assoc. AIA, architectural designer, assisted in the development of the concept and design as part of the WhiteSpace team.