Nationwide Children’s Hospital has selected NBBJ to design their $85 million Livingston Ambulatory Center in Columbus, Ohio. The six-story, 200,000-square-foot center will serve more than 100,000 patients annually. It will feature modular and flexible units centered around shared employee workspaces. Construction will begin in February.
“Architecture and health are inseparable,” says Haitian doctor and founder of Gheskio in Michael Kimmelman’s latest New York Times piece In Haiti, Battling Disease With Open-Air Clinics. Recounting the devastating images of medical dysfunction that have circulated the internet since the Ebola epidemic, Kimmelman presents MASS Design Group’s nearly complete Port-au-Prince health clinics as a potential model for healthcare architecture worldwide. Combating cholera and tuberculosis with a modest, practical layout and open-air design, the new clinics will serve one of the city’s largest slums. Learn why Kimmelman declares them “handsome” and believes they will help eradicate disease in Haiti, here.
CREO ARKITEKTER A/S and WE Architecture has been selected as one of three winners in the first phase for a new psychiatric hospital in Ballerup. “Reminiscent of a small village,” the prize-winning scheme steps away from the typical hospital typology to propose a dense cluster of gabled structures connected by therapeutic green space.
“The proposal fits the extension subtly and respectfully into the existing context… It adds a gable motif that opens the communal spaces towards the surrounding park and landscape and at the same time frames terraces and balconies. The committee finds that this simple move adds a subtle, non-institutional appearance with strong positive references to low-dense housing projects of very high quality,” stated the jury. Read on to learn more.
Foster + Partners has submitted plans for a new “Health Education Campus” in Cleveland, Ohio. The 485,000-square-foot quadrangle building is designed to foster collaboration between the students of Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic on the medical campus’ existing 11-acre parcel at East 93rd Street between Euclid and Chester Avenues.
To address issues surrounding Asia’s aging population and food scarcity, SPARK has unveiled a conceptual project the blends affordable retirement housing with urban farming. The proposal, titled "Home Farm," integrates vertical aquaponic farming and rooftop soil planting with high-density housing designed for seniors that provides residents with a desirable garden environment and opportunities for post-retirement employment.
"We designed this concept for Singapore," says SPARK Director Stephen Pimbley, "but there is the potential for it to be applied in any location that would support the growth of leafy green vegetables on building facades and rooftops." He continues, "We are keen to see this project materialise at some point in the future. The concept is a realizable solution to real and pressing problems faced by many of the world’s growing cities."
Read on to learn more about the concept.
Comparing Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios’ Dyson Centre for Neonatal Care to a Scandinavian spa, Gizmodo author Lucy Maddox considers the healing potential of well-designed hospitals as she recounts one woman’s postpartum experience following the birth of premature twins. Natural light, calming materials and colors, a thoughtful layout and clever use of technology have all contributed to making patient recoveries in the new center outperform those in the old hospital’s corridors. “Essentially we want the building to be a great big nurse. A really good nurse," says clinical psychologist Dr Mike Osborn. Read the complete article, here.
