Exploration of "What-If" Scenarios: A Prototype for Research Buildings at Stanford's School of Medicine

1.2 Statement of the Problem Our team was tasked to address the 18 departments located in the 4 wings of the Stone complex out of the 45 total departments located throughout the Stanford University Campus. These departments were slated for demolition and phased moves with a hierarchy of priorities and commitments. In addition there were functional relationship constraints, commitments associated with Principal Investigators (PIs) recruitment, planning requirements and further influences from the unpredictability of funding which may radically change priorities for relocation into the new building. The traditional process is characterized by a linear and sequential approach. The solution is defined early on, without full context, and details are developed incrementally in each phase without the ability to revisit previous decisions. Currently, complex, campus-wide planning processes tend to produce static documents in spite of rapidly changing academic environments. Over time, the design options’ appraisal process is often perceived to be biased and poorly documented relative to complex interdependent design driving factors. The inherent changes which occur over the life of a complex planning process are often made within the confines of specific building projects and appear to lack the benefit of being informed by the original inter-twined driving design forces. Furthermore, the volume of options that can be produced using that traditional process during complex projects such as this (characterized by dynamic interdependencies), can become overwhelming as well as confusing to stakeholders, to the design team and to other external parties.