International Architectural Competition | Taiwan Centers for Disease Control | Honorable Mention | WORD

As John Dewey suggests above in The Quest for Certainty, scientific study and research can only be as great as the curiosity and inquisitive nature with which it begins. To serve as a symbol of its ideological nature, the architecture of the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) must embody the same fervor and determination found in its researchers' quest for scientific progress. It must also promote connectivity and cohesion within the scientific community at large while opening its arms to the public which it serves.....more

Healthcare Centre of La Orotava | La Orotava | Tenerife | Arquitectura G

The immediate environment houses the parking areas for workers and visitors. The land descends to the lower house in the area of ​​loading, unloading and maneuvering of supplies and maintenance. From the court building around a courtyard to which pours its public areas and community activities. The shape of the court favors the formation shadows and cozy corners for outdoor relationship of both residents and visitors. The plant -1 distinguished staff access and supply, and connects the two circulations to the east and west of the building by a large service broker to facilitate the flow of personnel, goods and food to any part of it. It also contains all installations rooms, kitchen, dining room and staff changing rooms and all main storage spaces. The main entrance to the ground floor is made of the same height as the parking of visitors a lobby with a view to the courtyard and a double-height space. In the spacious lobby, clearly identifies the reception and lifts, and has a waiting area that relates directly to the cafeteria and multipurpose room in accordance with the guidelines of the Functional Plan.........more

All-Ukrainian Health Protection Centre for Mothers and Children | Kiev | Ukraine | BDP

A 250 bed children’s hospital in a forest setting. A highly sustainable, naturally ventilated, building which aims to achieve exemplary status in terms of carbon emissions and is sympathetic to the site in a natural forest habitat.
The new building separates the treatment and diagnostic areas from the ward areas and buries the former block beneath an extensive reinforced concrete and landscaped ‘green’ roof so that it merges with the forest floor.

The ward blocks are inspired by the Ukrainian tradition of the ‘dacha in the woods’, re-interpreted within a modernist aesthetic.....more

Psychiatric hospital | La Couronne | France | A/ZC

A space destined for the care of body and mind, the hospital is above all a place of life, sensitive and interactive, a direct extension of the nature that surrounds it. The building’s distribution pattern is organized in the form of an X around a central space resting at the heart of the site where all the activity rooms are to be found. This pattern is the result of an analysis of the hospital’s internal functioning, as well as an effort to augment the site’s landscape possibilities. The three accommodation wings, as well as the wing for administration and logistics, emanate from this core : each of the four arms are formed by an alternation of full and empty, of building and garden, of exterior and interior spaces. Thus, gardens penetrate the heart of the project.
All the site’s locations have not only an unencumbered view of the landscape, but in addition the possibility of direct access to gardens, as well as to a continuous, protected platform running along the perimeter of the building. The pathways are large curvatures that create a significant amount of fluidity among the spaces. The project draws in part on the natural slope of the site : with the building actually embedded into the slope, the roof becomes a natural extension of the land. Arriving by road, one perceives this continuity in the landscape as the roof gradually “detaches” itself from the site, allowing the project to develop in this in-between area.....more

Hospital Knokke-Heist | BUROII

The temporary association AAPROG - BOECKX - BUROII won the ambitious competition of vzw Gezondheidszorg Oostkust for a new hospital in Knokke-Heist at the Belgian coast. The grounds where the hospital will be built, is 20 hectares large. The new health care facility contains a hospital, a rehabilitation centre, a care hotel, an outpatients’ clinic, lecture halls, public events’ spaces and a helicopter landing platform. The challenges and ambitions of the new hospital go from being original, highly functional and future-oriented to sustainable and in any case, conserve the rural character of the environment.

The new hospital seemingly levitates above the landscape and is dominated by nature and light as far as the technical rooms below the ground floor. The transition between outside and inside, between the care facilities and the public spaces is almost seamless resulting in an inviting and inspiring context of care. The design is a striking example of “living architecture”: sustainable design and construction with a special eye for integration in the natural landscape, ecological energy and used materials.
The particular approach from a true multi-disciplinary team means a rupture in the traditional approach in architecture and established a precedent in the open consideration and collaboration at every level: from concept and design, planning, constructing to occupation and future evolution. The design team realized a true break through away from the tradition of hospitals as functional boxes with sterile spaces and instead directed itself towards a harmony of medical functions, personal relief and comfort and social interaction. ......more