MAAJ ARCHITECTES
Taverny medical centre
best architects 21
public buildings
Place
Taverny, France
Studio
Photos
François-Xavier DA CUNHA LEAL
Description
The project aims to bring a
multidisciplinary team of medical doctors and health-care professionals
together in one place so as to make up for the lack of practitioners outside
major cities. Since it is located in a fragmented townscape and bordered by a
motorway, the architects sought to design a building constructed around a
central patio, with an interior that is well-adapted to care facilities and
reminiscent of ancient cloisters. Its overall size and shape signal the
architects’ aim to integrate the medical centre harmoniously into the
surrounding urban environment, with balanced proportions between filled and
empty spaces, mineral and vegetal components, buildings and green areas. The
programme involves a functional organisation of the space. The square shape
allows an arrangement of areas of graded privacy around a communal area. The
central patio offers several advantages such as natural lighting for the entire
building. It serves as an open extension of the waiting rooms and acts as an
intimate, sensory place where plants are grown. Wood is used extensively (in
the structure and façade cladding) and reflects the architects’ desire to
provide the town with an environmentally-friendly building. The outer layer of
the building ensures the control of the ambient climate inside the building for
the well-being of the patients. Four-sided roofs crown the building and are of
a scale that is in keeping with existing buildings in the vicinity. The roofs
covering the medical centre ensure the natural lighting and ventilation of the
different areas.