Monday, August 3, 2009

Is EDAC the Next LEED?

B.ARCH. M.ARCH. AIA. NCARB. LEED-AP. CSI. ACHA. It's time to add another set of letters after architects' names: EDAC.

Short for Evidence-Based Design Accreditation and Certification, this latest acronym comes courtesy of the Center for Health Design (CHD), a California nonprofit dedicated to advancing the use of evidence-based design practices in healthcare architecture. The accreditation test launched in a beta phase in February and was opened to the general public in April. One of its primary goals is to formalize what evidence-based design entails, in order to bolster its legitimacy and galvanize practitioners around a shared definition of the term.

A new accreditation in evidence-based design seeks to clarify this misunderstood term. My latest feature article on the topic is now live on Architect magazine's Web site.