ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL BY ESAN RAHMANI

Due to the relocation of the existing Royal Adelaide Hospital the South Australian government called for an international competition to take a fresh look at how the existing hospital site could be used.

This lead to our collaboration with another team of young Sydney architects : littleBigDesignLab Raymond Ng, Gerald Lau, Benjamin Wong & Nick Kwong . Our scheme envisions a cultural hub for the city of Adelaide (Australia) by proposing a Museum of  Contemporary Art and other culturally significant buildings which is integrated into one landscape that also acts as the new gateway to the city’s Botanical Gardens.

Given the site’s prominent location in the city at the intersection of three distinct precincts (health+well-being, education+culture and entertainment), the design is aimed at the creation of an art & cultural park that offers a comprehensive set of facilities including state of the art museums, galleries and performance spaces, world-class art and design institutions, creative studio spaces and workshops for the design community, and unique retail and commercial activities to foster a vibrant meeting place and landmark for Adelaide and south Australia in the broader context.

The design also advocates for sustainable and intelligent design. It promotes the use of bicycles around the park by providing a unique track above ground with great views to decrease the already low percentage of ‘car use to get to work’ in the city of Adelaide (under 50%).  And the use of an intelligent facade system for the main tower (Museum of Contemorary Art) used to generate electricity and direct water for storage.

In creating a significant art & cultural hub for the city the proposal aims to position Adelaide as an integral player in creative and artistic innovations on the world stage. The design allows art to be free of environmental constraints providing a multifaceted layers and opportunities for the exhibition of artworks through the scheme including media facades, a range of different open and closed and controlled environments. The site is intended to serve as a canvas on which spontaneity can occur so that there is always something new to discover on each visit. it is a place for the community to meet, gather and enjoy throughout the year.

The proposed art & cultural park is comprised of three major components –

1. Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) – landmark building that provides the key programmes of the site in conjunction with adaptive re-use of existing buildings into institutional facilities, hospitality, retail and commercial functions. The MoCA (Museum of Contemporary Arts) has an intelligent facade system where photo-voltaic film covers louvers track solar path to generate electricity while balancing the need for optimum lighting for the internal spaces during the daytime. The smooth curtain wall facade &  lamelas of the tower direct rainwater for collection and storage for later use for plant life.  Depressions in the landscape are designed with drainage systems that also collect and store rainwater.

2. Plaza – a multi-functional ‘outdoor living room’ providing a canvas for an open-ended range of activities such as outdoor performances, projection screens for events, sports and movie screenings, art and crafts markets – a highly flexible place shared by the community that can be adapted and shaped according to how the public uses it. The landscape design incorporates sustainable design principles to create a self-sufficient environment requiring minimal resources and maintenance and the use of native plant species.

3. Gateway - acts as an extension to the botanic gardens with a landscaped outdoor auditorium-like spaces to allow for public performances and provide a cool outdoor break out space. forming an urban oasis for which learning, creation and appreciation of art and culture can be fostered. These major components are fused together by an urban terrain of parklands and generous shared pedestrian/cycle paths that facilitate the connection of the site with the city and its surrounding context.

Location: Adelaide, Australia

Architect: Esan Rahmani

Collaborators: littleBigDesignLab Architects Raymond Ng, Gerald Lau, Benjamin Wong, Nick Kwong

KALEIDA GLOBAL VASCULAR INSTITUTE BY CANNON DESIGN

The Gates Vascular Institute and UB Clinical Research Center forms the cornerstone of a new world-class health sciences campus focused on the regeneration of downtown Buffalo.

The spirit of collaboration was the driving force uniting Kaleida and the University at Buffalo within a single structure, and the building strives to bring several disciplines—cardiovascular, neurovascular, peripheral vascular—and its patients, surgeons and researchers, together for the exchange of knowledge and growth.

The 476,000 sf facility achieves this by stacking a translational research building over a clinical vascular institute. The first four floors of this 10-story “vertical campus,” house the Gates Vascular Institute (GVI), with the Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC) occupying the top half of the building.

Sandwiched between the two, is a two-level “collaborative core”—the “binder” that connects doctors and researchers from varying specialties to meet in a variety of dynamic situations to accelerate medical discoveries—moving science from the bench to the bedside.

The GVI boasts a “hotel” comprised of 62 private patient rooms arranged into four nursing pods—each capable of independent operation, but flexible enough to work together with adjacent pods over the ebb and flow of patient volume.  The “hotel” creates a more restive environment distinct from the active treatment areas. 

The new building was designed to attract people to the collaborative core areas. The interior design is enlivened with creative lighting, focal points, bright colors and warm woods that counter play with the crisp neutrals of the building palette.

To emphasize the continuity between outside and inside and among groups of occupants, the curvilinear forms of the structure are reintroduced into the millwork and solid surfaces, accented through use of color. The perimeter of the building is designed to admit abundant natural daylight. 

These architectural responses, combined with an approach akin to a concierge desk, provide the positive first and last impressions so vital to patient and family satisfaction.

Designed to handle 60,000 patient visits per year, GVI’s state-of-the-art Emergency Department features a spacious main waiting room, accommodating up to 90 people, with direct elevator access for immediate vertical transport of patients into procedure labs and operating rooms. 

Located adjacent to the imaging department with CT scan technology, the ED features 53 private patient rooms in four separate pods, two dedicated, state-of-the-art diagnostic x-ray machines, overhead electronic files for safe patient handling and dedicated space with waiting rooms for behavioral health patients. 

Location: Buffalo, New York

Architect: Cannon Design

Principal: Mehrdad Yazdani, Associate AIA

Civil Engineering: DiDonato Associates

Curtain Wall: Israel Berger

Landscape Architecture: Dean W. Gowen

General Contractor: Turner Construction Company

Area: 476500

Cost: $291,000,000

Year: 2012

Client: Kaleida Health and State University of New York at Buffalo

GMP ARCHITEKTEN WINS NEW CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL COMPETITION

The design by architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners, with JB Ferrari, for a new children’s hospital at the Lausanne University Hospital has won first prize in an international competition.

The hospital is to provide 85 beds and an accident and emergency unit for children, and is provisionally scheduled to open in 2019. The design concept includes light-flooded open areas with much greenery, which are intended to make a hospital stay as agreeable as possible for patients and their relatives. Today, the entry will be presented to the public in Lausanne.

The future children’s hospital will be located in the centre of the University Hospital on a 180 meter long site on the corner of Rue du Bugnon and Esplanade, which is a prominent location from the urban design point of view. Esplanade is the main address of the hospital. The building has been designed with six storeys, with the main entrance from Esplanade leading in to the children’s hospital, the accident and emergency unit and the care wards.

The underground station in that locality will be included in the overall concept by being built over. The part of the building to the east of the Esplanade will be lower, so that the view from the gynaecological unit would not be obstructed. The main access avenue between this lower building and the gynaecological unit will serve as internal access. The generous, bright two-storey building will accommodate waiting and play areas, with the examination and treatment areas branching off in a comb-like layout.

On the roof of the lower building is the cafeteria, and a public planted terrace offers facilities for play and recreation. Thanks to the topography of the location, the terrace can be accessed both at ground level and via natural ramps; in addition, generous steps will lead from the Esplanade along the facade to the terrace.

The care wards in the six-storey western part of the building will feature a terraced inner courtyard with conservatory, which is intended as a protected outside play area. The location offers fantastic views of Lausanne, Lake Geneva and the Alps.

Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
Architect: gmp Architekten
Design: Volkwin Marg
Associated Partner: Christian Hoffmann
Partner: JB Ferrari
Project Management: Martin Bleckmann, Stefan Walter, Sébastien Zwissig
Project Team: Christoph Salentin, Lukasz Rubnikowicz, Marlen Beckedahl, Flori Jackowski, Stephanie Krämer-Hilke, Steve Cherpillod, Marcella Wurmli, Annick Lavenex
Gross floor area: 39,232 m2
Year: 2014
Client: Etat de Vaud, DSAS, CHUV
Competition: 2014 – 1st prize