DIRTT in Health Care?

Nancy Witherell Art Tours State of the Art Facility

The Design Section at DIRTT Headquarters, Calgary, AB

DIRTT. It's a new thing in healthcare, and now we know why. DIRTT is an acronym for Doing It Right This Time, and the company uses cutting edge technologies in designing interior spaces for healthcare, hospitality and other environments.

Art on Glass?

After being awarded the contract for the Sutter, Van Ness Geary, Medical Office Building in San Francisco, a building with all DIRTT 'Art', Nancy Witherell Art toured the facility in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to better understand the process. Art in these spaces is printed on 2mm thick glass and incorporated directly into the walls of the building. Health care likes this approach because of the durable and clean environment DIRTT walls provide. There was no snow left on the ground to give us the real Great White North experience, but it was May after all!

Traditional Art and Photography

Nancy Witherell Art licensed both photography and traditional art (painting, mixed media, acrylic, etc) for the 400+ pieces of art.

The first part of the tour was a walk-through ICE (the software), which is built on gaming software technology. You can change walls, finishes, and furnishings as you go. ICE updates all the files that are sent to billing and manufacturing, and changes are reflected instantly.

You can virtually 'fly through' an area on the big screen to see what an art piece will look like on the wall before it is built. Even more impressive is donning a virtual reality backpack and goggles and walking through an area built in software. You can walk through walls and furniture in this space.

A sample of art on a glass tile

A wall view in ICE software

Nancy tours a room virtually

Next, we toured the factory where panels are cut, veneers are attached to panels, wall panels are painted, art is printed on glass, and everything is put together to send to the client. The specifications are sent through ICE software to employees and to the machines that size and cut the panels.

The design center and office was full of examples of the 'tiles' and other innovative uses.

Throughout the tour we were impressed with the technical innovation and the care DIRTT took with their products and employees.

We are pleased to offer our expertise for DIRTT projects.

See other DIRTT Healthcare Projects: https://www.dirtt.net/projects/healthcare/