This post is in a series where we talk to healthcare interior designers about their work as interior designers in the healthcare market.

Becky Trybus is a Senior Interior Designer at Forum Architecture & Interior Design. She is certified by the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers (AAHID).

What is one book, person, or talk that has been most influential in your career?

Most certainly it was my first commercial design project in school – a dementia care facility. We had an initial research component to understand the disease at large which became our basis for designing several possible building schematics. We then developed one of these plans more fully by incorporating finish specifications, interior architectural detailing through hand-drawn perspective drawings, and renderings followed by a studio presentation. Exposure to the depth of this type of design was deeply gratifying and became a subconscious measure for all design projects I’ve ever worked on.

What products have you been excited about recently?

Acoustical products. From patient privacy laws to addressing hearing impairments, acoustical treatment is essential in any healthcare based environment.

Do you have any go-to design solutions or techniques for creating healing environments?

I’m always striving to learn as much as I can about health and wellness and how that plays into the aging body and age-related diseases. In other words, my first order of business is to understand who I’m designing for and how design responds to their needs.

If you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be?

While I’ve learned much about different types of design over the years and am grateful for this perspective, I’d tell my younger self to skip the scenic route and go full throttle into healthcare-based design.

What is one product that doesn't exist but should?

If I come across something that doesn’t exist, I design it!

We've also talked to Shelby Frye (Pulse Design Group), Elisha Lorenzi (EML Interiors), Sarah Tetens (Baskervill), Kari Allen (Guidon Design), Crystal McCauley (CallisonRKTL), Jennifer Bahan (Hoefer Welker), Char Hawkins (DesignGroup), Pete Agnew (Perkins Eastman), Deirdre Pio (Gawron Turgeon), Jessica Whitlock (RS&H), Amber Williams (KDA Architecture), Jenny Manansala (Stantec), Andrea Kingsbury (FreemanWhite), and more.

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