BUILDING SERVICES
ARCHITECTURE
Gelre Hospital
Haga Hospital
The Asclepius!
Gemini Hospital, Den Helder
A living building and a healing environment
A new hospital on a new site. Planetree and the Living Building Concept were the key themes in the design of this new 25,000-m2 hospital. The Planetree method helps in the creation of a pleasant environment for both patients and staff, while the Living Building Concept ensures that the building can shrink or expand in response to demands. Combining the two produces both emotional and rational advantages.
The apparent differences in approach were unified in the design with the creation of two highly flexible and rational building blocks (the Gemini twins) placed parallel to each other with an organic form sheltered between the two. The rational blocks contain the more private medical functions, while the organic form houses the more public and recreational functions. The two functional blocks are raised above ground to allow for a car park beneath the building. The hospital will be built in Den Helder, a harbour town on the northern coast of Holland. The surrounding dune landscape provided the inspiration for the design. The undulating, stepped form of the parallel blocks usually relates the complex firmly to the dune landscape and passing containerships.
Follow this link to read an interview held with Gemini Hospital’s construction coordinator Freek Jan Kossen.
Disciplines
Architecture, landscape design, services, structural engineering
Martini Hospital, Groningen
Take uncertainty as the only certainty
The design for the new Martini Hospital takes the theme of flexibility a step further. That led to an IFD status (Industrial, Flexible and Demountable Building System) awarded by the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment and the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The design is mainly based on patient and staff needs, and on a healing environment. This is not a matter of architecture alone.
What’s also important is the application of a special colour palette created in collaboration with interior designer Bart Vos and strongly influenced by the artist Peter Struycken. The design of the building blocks relative to each other produced a very clear layout and optimally planned hospital in terms of function.
The architecture not only expresses the dynamism of the healthcare sector, but also answers the financial challenge of an enlarged, rhythmic facade. Moreover, the specially developed modular wall system offers optimal design freedom and is highly innovative. Geothermal storage in the ground and the greenhouse-like climate facade ensure a big reduction in energy costs and CO2 emissions. Despite these special features, the project was completed within the budget set by the Netherlands Board for Healthcare Institutions.
Disciplines
Next Generation Hospital, Sielnica, Slovakia
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
Haga Hospital, The Hague
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
Gelre Hospital, Zutphen
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.