Step Exhibitions
Stephen Parker, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, NOMA, Mental Health Planner at Stantec
Nominee Information
As mental health planner at Stantec, Stephen has presented at 20 events in 2024, collaborated on 15 articles, papers or interviews across multiple platforms. His development of the Stantec ZenDen design has melded education and mental health typologies with sensory-enabled architecture as a mobile exhibit and research platform. Parker’s winning presentation on workplace design with Stantec’s Future Frontier team blended neurodiverse design with advanced AI tools, winning two of 5 categories, Best in Show and Judge’s Choice. His blending of AI and mock-ups has been presented, published & inspired a curriculum at Texas A&M University.
As a Practitioner with the Trauma-Informed Design (TiD) Society, Stephen collaborated on the planning, funding & execution of a Trauma-Informed Design Workshop at the Environmental Design Research Association in Portland, Oregon. As a Centre for Conscious Design Fellow, Stephen has advocated for sensory-enabled architecture and neurodiverse design considerations, publishing his work on the Stantec ZenDen.
In the past year, he has designed or master planned nearly 1000 inpatient mental health beds, developed four master plans, helped open seven separate facilities as medical planner and subject matter expert. He submitted four separate projects across diverse typologies in the US and Canada, winning several national and international design awards along the way.
In 2024, Stephen co-founded the DrawnOut! Mental Health Sketch Workshop series, an interactive sketching workshop intended to defy stigma by design. A collaboration with a friend with lived experience, the workshop pairs empathy exercises with evidence-based design best practices. This has been implemented from Honolulu to Washington, DC to Manchester, England and beyond.
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