Wider design focus for Michael Graves

[NEW YORK]

IN 2003, Michael Graves had just returned home from a business trip to Germany and Switzerland. He wasn't feeling well and told colleagues at his architectural firm that he was leaving early to go home and rest.

By the next morning, Mr Graves - one of America's most prominent architects and designers - was fighting for his life against a mysterious virus. It was not until two years later, after treatment in eight hospitals and four rehab centres, that he finally got back to work - paralysed from the chest down and needing to use a wheelchair.

This story is not about the virus or his rehab, but about what Mr Graves has done with the rest of his life: design hospitals and rehab centres for people like himself, for wounded so…