Clichy-Batignolles
By Atelier du Pont | Paris
Combining city planning and rejuvenation with the residents’ needs to remain independent, Atelier du Pont transformed a former railway enclave in the heart of Paris into a contemporary nursing home. Completed in 2015, the 65,842-square-foot facility provides personal outdoor space to each room while maintaining a comforting intimacy within the interior. The overall design was a holistic effort, taking into consideration the location in the city, the architectural needs of the residents, and contemporary interior aesthetics, resulting in a project which responds to the challenges of urban design and an aging population.
Maggie’s Centres
By Norman Foster | Manchester, UK
Maggie’s Centres—originally conceived by Maggie Keswick Jencks—are a network of care centers for cancer patients looking for emotional and practical support which span across the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. The newest center, located in Manchester, was completed in April of this year by Foster + Partners.
Positioned a short walk from The Christie Hospital, the building utilizes sunlight and greenery in its design, creating a holistic approach between the architecture and the patients’ therapies. The single-story center is lit by triangular skylights framed by timber lattice beams, bringing nature into the interior, while private gardens designed by Dan Pearson Studio line the eastern exterior wall. Traditional institutional references, such as corridors and hospital signs, were eschewed for a more residential means of wayfinding to allow patients to feel as if they’ve left the clinical setting.
University of Queensland Oral Health Centre
By Cox Architects
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Located alongside the Royal Brisbane Hospital in the University of Queensland’s medical campus, the nearly 30,000-square-meter University of Queensland Oral Health Centre, designed by Cox Architecture in association with Hames Sharley, facilitates engagement with the surrounding park, drawing the organic into the institutional space. Housing an interior system of clinical simulation rooms, pre-clinical laboratories, research laboratories, and lecture rooms, the use of natural wood and glass envelope of the building wraps the traditionally sterile atmosphere in an organic form, acting as a metaphor for the discipline and craft of dentistry.
Ross Langdon Health Education Centre
By Ross Langdon and Sudio FH Architects
Mannya, Uganda
While often we think of medical centers as enclosed, technology-rich environments meant to be safe havens from the germ-laden outside world, in many places around the globe health education begins in open-air community facilities. Designed by the late architect Ross Langdon—an Australian who, along with his wife and unborn child, fell victim to the 2013 Westgate terror attacks in Nairobi—the Ross Langdon Health Education Centre in the village of Mannya in Rakai, Southwestern Uganda, was envisioned as a small, basic building meant as a meeting
place for the regions populous.
After Langdon’s death, the project’s client, Cotton On Foundation of Australia, approached the Uganda-based firm Studio FH Architects to finalize his vision, which was completed in 2016.
Made with eucalyptus poles, clay brick and tile, zinc-al roofing sheets, and a ceiling of handmade “Mukeka” reed mats, the center’s exterior is designed to filter air and light without the need for windows. The open, 2,798-square-foot center provides space for about 150 people to sit on clay tile steps, and a raised platform from which a speaker can address them.
Cypress Gardens
By JSR Associates Inc. | Hangzhou, China
In 2010, JSR Associates Inc. was commissioned by China Senior Care to create a senior living facility which was to incorporate western knowledge and eastern traditions into residential healthcare. Finalized in 2016, the facility incorporates independent living with assisted living, dementia and hospice care, and rehabilitation services to allow aging in place for the residents.
Floor-to-ceiling windows allow natural light into the building, as well as views of the surrounding gardens. The interior utilizes natural woods and rounded features to provide a calming effect for inhabitants.
