ArtCenter students Alvin Oei (Lead Designer/Environmental Design), Belle Lee (Illustrator/Illustration), Lori Nishikawa (Research & Strategy/Product Design) and Lauren Medina (Communications Strategy/Interaction Design) came together through the Designmatters and Environmental Design hosted studio Safe Niños. The students were challenged to reimagine the campus of COANIQUEM, a nonprofit treatment center in Santiago, Chile for pediatric burn survivors, as a healing, human-centered environment that celebrates and promotes well-being for patients, their families, and medical staff. Guided by faculty Penny Herscovitch, Daniel Gottlieb and Stella Hernandez, the students developed concepts over the course of several months for what would eventually become The Healing Tree, a comprehensive storytelling system that brings patients on a magical healing journey at COANIQUEM. Lead Designer Alvin Oei was awarded a grant from Sappi Ideas that Matter to bring The Healing Tree to full implementation on COANIQUEM’s campus in Summer 2017.
