MAAJ ARCHITECTES

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.