Monthly Archives: May 2013

A big leap into the future!

Looking to Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing, one can say that although the knowledge of healthcare was very advanced in ancient times, it cannot be compared to our current possibilities and certainly not to those that lie ahead. In the same way, hospitals built in ancient times cannot be compared with those of today. On the other hand, people now and then don’t differ too much. In fact, they are more or less the same and have comparable needs.

Designing a hospital for the next generation means accommodating all sorts of future developments as well as the needs of people. The former are rational, while the latter are emotional. That this apparent contradiction can be reconciled in a single building in a very natural, sustainable and attractive manner, is proven by the design for the Next Generation Hospital.

In its form, the building smoothly follows the landscape contours and even refers to the snake of Asclepius. The corpus coro, housing the core functions of the hospital, is faced in stone quarried locally. The Asclepius houses all other functions and features local timber that turns a grey shade in the sunlight. The Asclepius looks as if it is elevated above the surroundings, its balconies overlooking the beautiful scenery as the landscape flows into the courtyards and interior. Supported by modern sustainable installations, the building makes a stay in hospital as pleasant as possible.

Disciplines

Work innovation architecture, landscape design, services, structural engineering

Facts

New general hospital 70,000m2 gross floor area

In 2008, the Haga Hospital started a program of innovation to improve working procedures. This program consists of online services for patients, digitization of information flows and a more patient-centered approach.

The Haga Hospital, a large hospital that is spread over a number of locations in The Hague, also decided to bring together all care services into one facility which had to be renovated and extended with a new building. Our health consultants developed innovative working concepts that include online services for patients, new logistics concepts for the outpatient department and a logistics model to show that less floor area was required to facilitate the new organisation.

Additionally, the Planetree patient-centered vision influenced the design. These new principles helped with the shaping of the hospital design, which is now being worked out in user groups at Haga Hospital under our supervision.

Disciplines

Work innovation, services

The new Gelre Hospital opened its doors on 2 October 2010. This is the first Dutch hospital financed entirely by the hospital itself, instead of by the state, which was common until recently in the Netherlands. The hospital is smaller than the old building, and that meant that many logistical and efficiency issues had to be addressed.

SQwin health consultants planned both the logistics and spatial requirements for the outpatient department. This department has been reduced from the 80 consultation rooms in the old building to 60 rooms by increasing healthcare efficiency. A new working concept, featuring front office and back office elements, was introduced for specialists. In addition, SQwin realized the Amsterdam Airport waiting concept in the hospital: Central Stay and Decentral Waiting. Patients stay in the central hall until their appointments start. The procedure is supported by ICT to ensure that the logistical process is smooth.

This was the first time that the concept was applied in the Netherlands, and it was nominated for a national Spider Innovation Award. Since its introduction, more hospitals have implemented the concept to improve their systems.

Follow this link to read an interview held with Gelre Hospital’s healthcare manager Hendrik Jan Koppelman.

Disciplines

Work innovation, logistics, efficiency.

The Medical Centre in Alkmaar is currently working to set up a new Top Clinical Intervention Centre in Heerhugowaard. For the design logistics, SQwin health consultants carried out a computer simulation and animation study to analyze the efficiency of the building in relation to all patient, goods, staff and visitor flows.

The computer simulation showed that less expensive facilities (i.e. a logistics basement route) were needed for efficient and effective logistics. In the autumn of 2012, another logistics study was carried out to analyze the logistical effect of separating the current location in Alkmaar and the new clinical location in Heerhugowaard. For this, the current logistics were simulated in the new building layout. The design of the buildings is currently undergoing amendments in response to the outcomes of this study.

Disciplines

Work innovation

DHD has been regular M&E advisors to this top clinical hospital since 1998. Besides many maintenance projects, we have completed large extensions and renovation schemes. Design Of particular note about the projects for this client is the phased completion over a long period of time.

To guarantee consistency in the deployment of installations, DHD drew up a master plan for the technical installations, which helped to solve short-term problems such as a shortage of cooling capacity and electricity supply. The entire technical infrastructure, both mechanical and electrical, was examined. Improvements, particularly in terms of energy consumption, redundancy and operational safety, are recorded in an infrastructure master plan for technical installations. All proposed measures will be introduced in phases. After the work has been completed, the result will be a fully operational set of installations that are energy efficient, flexible and ready for the future.

Innovative aspects

An example is the renovation of the nursing departments, where patient-centred solutions were implemented. In practice, this meant creating a domestic atmosphere. First, a trial floor was refurbished. Then, on the basis of the experiences with this trial floor, a big factor of repetition was achieved through aiming for more standardization. The result is that as much as possible could be achieved within the available budget. Owing to the high level of standardization and the creative treatment of the design, DHD succeeded in fitting cooling ceilings in the nursing departments.

Sustainable and healthy building

In addition to the patient-centred approach and the responsible choice of materials, energy consumption is minimized by the choice for a complex wide geothermal energy storage/production system.

Disciplines

Mechanical and electrical engineering

Good outdoor space is vital for the provision of high-standard healthcare.

For the grounds of the Zonnehuis healthcare facility in Amstelveen, Hosper landscape architecture and urban design created a car-free, green and vibrant outdoor space. A host of green oases with luxuriant plants and playground equipment set on an expressively designed outdoor surface connect the various healthcare and residential buildings to one another.

The outdoor space surrounding the hospital complex consists of gardens with permanent plants, an entrance hall designed as an orangerie, and a glasshouse for activities for residents. The outdoor area features a terrace and playground zone, and there is also a permanent plant garden that includes a sloped surface and steps for walking exercises. Two gardens have been specifically designed as dementia-friendly spaces.

A special pergola and covered walkway has been built to connect the two parts of the healthcare complex. What is also remarkable is that, apart from the gardens designed specifically for dementia patients, the entire grounds is freely accessible to residents of the surrounding neighbourhood.

Disciplines

Landscape design

As a follow up to previously completed assignments for the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), Wassenaar Engineering was appointed to design the structure of a complex of amenities. The complex contains a range of hospital amenities, including a pharmacy, medical faculty with lecture hall, laboratories, X-ray rooms for radiotherapy, staff rooms and company restaurant, as well as spaces for outside parties such as the Sanquin Blood Bank Northeast, the Groningen Dialysis Centre and an Academic Doctors Surgery.

A three-storey car park beneath the building completes the complex. A layer of dense clay in the soil was inventively used as a watertight base for a three-storey car park. This proved to be significantly cheaper than the previous design of a large shallow ‘bowl’ with a large surface area. By making use of the waterproof qualities of the retaining walls (deep concrete wall) and the layer of dense clay, the designers could omit the bottom of the garage. The retaining walls were temporarily anchored by grouted anchors. The columns are held in position by pads that rest directly on the sand. To compensate for the difference in subsidence and the swelling of the columns, an auger programme was executed. The garage is structurally attached to the buildings above it. The offices are housed in the Bridge Building, the name of which refers to the connection, both physical and metaphorical, between the University Hospital and the University of Groningen.

Divided into three sections, the building is 130 m long, up to 11 storeys tall (40 m), and 13.5 m wide. The office building consists of loadbearing facade elements and hollow-core slabs with pressure layers that span from facade to facade. The laboratories, containing facilities such as the blood bank and the dialysis centre, are situated above the garage. The skeleton of the garage extends upwards into the buildings above. The shape of the building and structure of the garage made the choice for a grid of columns with wide-board floors the most efficient. The stability of the components was achieved by the use of poured concrete cores that house the stairwells and elevator shafts. The components have heights ranging from one to six storeys. Situated between the components are a patio with a movable, transparent deck and a restaurant with a fixed transparent roof. Beneath the tall buildings are four radiotherapy levels.

What is remarkable about these underground levels are the thick walls of up to 1.5 m and the steel plates of up to 30 cm in thickness in the walls and the deck. Part of the basement level is occupied by the distribution centre and is connected to the distribution tunnel system of UMCG.

Disciplines

Structural engineering

The Linnaeusborg Centre for Life Sciences at the University of Groningen University is a nine-floor faculty building of 36,000m2. It includes three research and training facilities, specialist biochemical labs, MRI, isotope lab, animal facilities, aquariums and greenhouses.

The three research facilities of the Centre for Life Sciences are housed in two wings and a bridge that forms the upper part of the building. The zoology wing rises from the ground floor and connects with the animal housing wing. The south wing, linked to the glasshouses, is dedicated to botany. Between them, on the building’s upper floors, the wings are bridged by the microbiology and biotechnology departments. Linnaeusborg scores highly in terms of sustainability.

The building is compact and boasts a very favourable exterior wall-to-floor ratio. It is also sustainable in terms of materials and energy consumption. Flexible use through consistently applied floor-plan zoning and installations also make the building future-proof in terms of changes in function. In addition, special attention was paid to the development of a light, low-maintenance facade (saving on construction), which is built with innovative, prefabricated polyester facade elements of extremely high insulation value.

The resources have led to an extremely low Energy Performance Coefficient score of 0.662. Structure is also an active component in the design. The building makes use of the campus heat-cold storage facility, one of the largest installations in the Netherlands. The structural floors are also used for heat and cold distribution (concrete core activation). The building contains large openings that admit daylight. The absence of structural walls allows for great freedom in the interior layout.

Disciplines

Structural Enginering