Productive interactions to exchange knowledge in healthcare building design

Architects and healthcare organizations involved in designing healthcare environments highly value insights gained through research to inform their practice. Obtaining research funding increasingly presupposes economic and/or societal value of research outcomes. Our study aims to gain a nuanced understanding of what knowledge transfer in an inter- and transdisciplinary context, like healthcare building design, means for various actors involved. Based on the notion of productive interactions, we reflect on a knowledge-transfer project seeking solutions for real-world problems in the design of healthcare buildings with a focus on patient experience. We analyze how different actors involved in the project –including researchers, healthcare organizations, and designers–view and value the knowledge provided and transferred, and the (pathways towards) impact. In doing so, we illustrate how productive interactions can take place in real-life situations. We conclude that the roles of researchers and practitioners in knowledge exchange processes should be understood to be fluid. Future realizations of productive interactions could be supported by evaluating knowledge-transfer projects in terms of process and outcomes, thus acknowledging the shifting roles of researchers and practitioners, and the potential to improve well-being and social relations through research.