Healthcare / Healthy Cities
Healthy City Design 2017
Reimagining the hospital as a community hub creates health and wellness in our cities
By Burkhard Musselmann, Velimira Drummer and Michael Moxam | 23 Oct 2017 | 0
A true environment of wellness is created through connection to and reflection of the community it serves. Modern healthcare facilities strive to be open, transformative and transparent community hubs, fostering healing, recreation and wellbeing along with positive working conditions. In this capacity, they’re integral to developing more sustainable and resilient healthy cities.
Abstract
A panel of architects critically discuss three different architectural solutions – connection, relocation and transformation – for healthcare facilities, and how they have impacted on the urban and social fabric of the city. With reference to three hospitals, the panel will demonstrate how each of the three different design strategies has produced successful community engagement. They will look at how the specific social and urban fabric of each project informs the design solution for the future integration of large healthcare facilities into urban settings.
New Victoria Wing and Great North Children’s Hospital, Newcastle, England – Connection: breaking down barriers: The new hospital campus masterplan connects the existing hospital buildings to the university campus, student housing and Leazes Park. It creates welcoming community spaces, including piazzas, boulevards and an atrium street within a 70,000 sqm adult and children’s hospital. It’s become a lively melting pot, where different user communities of patients, visitors, clinicians, researchers and students can gather.
South West Acute Hospital, Enniskillen, Northern Ireland – Relocation: a new sense of pride and identity: When the main hospital in Enniskillen moved from town to countryside, the design drew on its vernacular urban fabric and rural setting to create a microcosm of community life. Using biophilic design, it’s created a sense of pride and identity.
Bridgepoint Active Healthcare, Toronto, Canada – Transformation: an urban filter for wellness: Bridgepoint Active Health is as much about city-building as about engagement with the community. The sense of being connected to one’s urban and natural environment is fundamental to the architecture of wellness. Fully integrated into the neighbourhood, it’s a welcoming destination for people seeking help and inspiration in dealing with chronic disease and rehabilitation.
This presentation focuses on how the implementation of innovative and holistic models of healthcare design is fostering health and wellness in cities.
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