MKM architecture + design is launching a new video conversation series, Health is Membership, looking to better understand the connection between placemaking and well-being. Hosted by Principal Zachary Benedict, AIA, the show will sit down with innovators across the care continuum and examine how communities can redefine a culture of health throughout the Midwest.
Community well-being is a systemic issue with interconnected concerns ranging from public policy to social isolation. When one realizes that a zip code has a more immediate impact on our health than our genetic code, it is easy to see how complicated this problem has become, especially within the Midwest. As the poet Wendell Berry once noted, “community – in the fullest sense; a place and all its creatures – is the smallest unit of health and to speak of the health of an isolated individual is a contradiction in terms.”
As an architect working in northeast Indiana, Benedict understand the challenges the Midwest faces as it looks to improve the health and well-being of its residents. Each month, he will interview physicians, economists, urbanists, politicians, poets and everyone in between, to highlight the most effective ways to positively impact public health outcomes. The show aims to cultivate a discussion that reminds communities that health is not a metric, but a membership, one that requires everyone play a part.
View the Series Introduction to Health is Membership on MKM’s YouTube channel. The first episode of Health is Membership will be released in mid-May.
