George J. Mann was recently named the new director of the International Union of Architects Public Health Group. In this role, he will advocate heightened patient care, improved healthcare access and availability and quality, affordable health facilities worldwide.
Mann is a professor of architecture at Texas A&M and The Skaggs-Sprague Endowed Chair of Health Facilities Design at Texas A&M. He was elected to a three-year term as UIA PHG director at the organization’s annual meeting March 22-24 in Oslo, Norway.
Mann said his goals as the group’s new director include: Making the UIA PHG the world’s leader of innovative health facility research and design, increasing membership from developing nations and encouraging student participation.
Mann is the first U.S. resident to hold the director’s post. He has previously served on the UIA PHG executive committee and has been the American Institute of Architects’ liaison to the group for the past five years. He joined the organization at its 1974 annual meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.
UIA PHG members, who hail from 40 nations around the world, focus on sharing knowledge and experience with fellow architects, engineers, consultants, healthcare managers and providers, healthcare organizations and governments. The members initiate research projects that contribute to better healthcare buildings and environments.
Since establishing the Architecture-for-Health studio at Texas A&M, Mann has directed students in more than 700 socially significant research and design projects throughout the world. The studio’s more recent projects include designs for rural hospitals in Tanzania and the Sudan, an eye hospital in China and a San Antonio, Texas clinic and wellness center catering to the under- and uninsured.
