NOVELL Team: Sarah-May bids farewell

The NOVELL team bids farewell to Sarah-May Blaschke who is moving back home to New Zealand. Sarah-May was the project manager of the NOVELL Redesign project. She was instrumental in setting up the project and forming collaborations between neuroscientists, architects, and designers to help rethink stroke rehabilitation environments. Her research skills and bright personality will be sorely missed. Sarah-May's last day was October 19th, and we wish her all the best with her future endeavours. Before her departure, she wanted to share her reflection on the project so far:

Moments when purpose, passion and opportunity align are rare. NOVELL Redesign was such a moment for me. Standing at crossroads as a Postdoc Researcher with big visions and little holding me back, I was excited when the opportunity came up to join the NOVELL Redesign project in its beginning stage. As a new colleague at the Florey Institute, I introduced myself a researcher with a background in Architecture and Healthcare. It was quickly established that the concept of NOVELL Redesign was just as new to the Florey Institute as I was. From this realisation, the potential became apparent to me. I was excited to be working on a multidisciplinary project that brings together Healthcare and Architecture; the two worlds my career had shaped itself around.

The first days were spent receiving and comprehending Julie Bernhardt’s vision for the project, one that she had been crafting over years of engaging with architecture and design topics in the stroke rehabilitation space. The aspirational tone and direction experienced on Day 1 kept building and guided the establishment of each project area. In reflection, it is this aspiration that to me gives NOVELL Redesign its unique prowess and pull. Soon our calendars filled with meetings that aimed to bring together leading experts across fields. A core aim of NOVELL Redesign is to engage with everyone involved in designing and using rehabilitation environments. The ambition to rethink how these settings are designed and used kept us asking “how can this be done differently?”. In response, seeds are being planted for new conversations that inspire traditional and new players to enter the healthcare design space with new perspectives.

NOVELL Redesign builds from a foundation of research evidence, practice experience, and lived experience of stroke rehabilitation. This grounding allows NOVELL Redesign to boldly explore new design options and venture to those places where ambitious questions can be asked, and responses rigorously explored. Having seen the project take shape and gain momentum, I leave the team feeling enriched and strengthened in my purpose and passion. While exploring new opportunities on home turf in Aotearoa, I will watch with great interest how NOVELL Redesign progresses toward solutions for designing a new kind of stroke rehabilitation environment that maximises quality of experience.