RIBA + L.K.E. Ozolins Lecture 2025: Architecture for Healing

Join us for the 2025 L.K.E. Ozolins Lecture, an exploration of excellence in contemporary and future healthcare architecture.

Discover how design can be a powerful catalyst for healing, transforming spaces into environments that enhance health and well-being. Designed to inspire architects, healthcare providers, and institutions alike, this panel discussion will explore how the built environment can impact our experience of care.

Chaired by Stiliyana Minkovska, female-centred healthcare designer and architect, and CEO of Matrix Health & Care, this panel talk will open with presentations from panellists Antoine Chaaya, Partner at Renzo Piano Building Workshop; Ernest Fasanya, Director at Hopkins Architects; and Michael Woodford, Architect and Office Director at White Arkitekter; who then come together to share insights into how architecture can create a healing environment.

Chair

Stiliyana Minkovska

Founder, Matrix Health and Care

Stiliyana is a qualified architect and healthcare designer, dedicated to transforming women’s health through the universal language of design. Her journey pivoted in 2015 during her Master’s in Architecture at the Royal College of Art when pregnancy revealed gaps in women’s healthcare, inspiring her to merge design with advocacy. A champion of design’s power to tackle societal challenges, Stiliyana completed a Master’s in Healthcare and Design from RCA and Imperial College in 2022. The following year she founded Matrix Health and Care, a groundbreaking venture focused on revolutionising gynaecological care through women-led design innovation, showcasing her unwavering commitment to impactful, human-centered solutions.

The Panel

Antoine Chaaya

Partner, Director at Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Born in Lebanon in 1960, Antoine Chaaya studied architecture at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), Lebanon. After graduating, he joined the Paris office in 1987 and worked as a lead architect on different projects including the Kanak Cultural Center in New Caledonia and the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Since becoming a Partner in 1997, he has been the Partner in charge of other projects including The New Columbia University Manhattanville Campus, NY. Currently, he is the Partner in charge of the Grand Hospital of Saint-Ouen Paris Nord, The Center for Arts and Innovation in Boca Raton, Florida, as well as the Jawaher Boston Medical District in Sharjah, UAE.

Antoine was appointed member of the RPBW board in 2014. He has been elected as a distinguished alumnus at USEK and was nominated as the patron of the class of young architects 2017. He received a new distinction in 2018. He is an honorary member of the Lebanese Green Buildings Council, in 2024 he was appointed Member of the Scientific Orientation Council of the Archidessa Chair, Architecture, Design, Health. He lectures widely including talks at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, and the AIA.

Ernest Fasanya

Director at Hopkins Architects

Ernest joined Hopkins Architects in 1987 and has overseen a wide range of award-winning projects in numerous sectors, including healthcare, education and sports. Highlights include the Mound Stand at Lord’s, the Music School at King’s College School, Wimbledon, and the University of Oxford New Humanities Building. He is currently working on a project to renew the existing Bloomberg School of Public Health for Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

He recently worked on the Royal Free campus to design and deliver the award-winning Pears Building (Institute of Immunity and Transplantation) for the Royal Free Charity and University College London. Other healthcare projects have included Circle Hospitals (a range of modular private healthcare clinics ranging from 5,000 to 8,000m²), a private Oncology Unit in Harley Street and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore. His particular focus is on evidence-based and whole patient-orientated sustainable design, using both proven and innovative techniques to maximise choice.

Ernest is a member of the New London Architecture’s (NLA) Healthcare Panel, which is currently investigating how the skills and expertise of London NHS Estates and Development teams could best be maximised. He was also Chair of the North London Panel for the 2024 RIBA Awards.

Micheal Woodford

Partner, Director at White Arkitekter

Michael is an Architect, Partner and Director of White Arkitekter’s London Studio. He brings over 20 years of design leadership to the team. Having designed, delivered and led multi-award-winning buildings in the UK and the Netherlands, Michael has a broad and thorough understanding of the architectural, cultural, and commercial contexts of architectural practice. Michael is responsible for White’s UK healthcare portfolio which today includes ground-breaking projects such as the new Velindre Cancer Centre, predicted to be “the greenest hospital in the UK”, Cambridge Children’s Hospital and Moorfields Eye Hospital, Project Oriel. Under Michael’s leadership, White’s London Studio is leading the way with low carbon design and the implementation of regenerative and biobased materials.

Lead Image credit:

The Jawaher Boston Medical District in Sharjah, UAE - Renzo Piano Building Workshop

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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Royal Institute of British Architects, 66 Portland Place, London, United Kingdom