KUNMING MEDICAL UNIVERSITY 1ST AFILIATED HOSPITAL
Building Area: 128,000m²
Design Time: 2008
Number of Beds: 1000
Partners: GBBN Architects with IPPR
Service Scope: Schematic Design, Design Development
Construction Complete
Work by Alan Warner with GBBN
Design Time: 2008
Number of Beds: 1000
Partners: GBBN Architects with IPPR
Service Scope: Schematic Design, Design Development
Construction Complete
Work by Alan Warner with GBBN
Project Overview:
The project requirements included designing a 1000 bed comprehensive hospital on a 128,000 square meter site that would also allow for a second phase for another 1000 bed hospital and associated campus residential and research facilities. With an expected 5000 Out-Patient visitors per day, the Out-Patient Hall would need to be expansive and yet maintain excellent connections to the D&T and Emergency Department.
Project Characteristics:
This full-service medical center is configured to take full advantage of Kunming’s mild climate, which offers brilliant sunshine and moderate breezes year-round. A distinctive branching lattice sunscreen system on the inpatient tower protects operable windows from direct sunlight. The lattice also reveals a series of superimposed hanging gardens in the center of the 13-story building, offering patients and their families welcome retreat and connection to the outdoors. Within the primary care outpatient clinics, as many as 5,000 outpatient visitors per day are welcomed into a vast 5-story covered open-air concourse that links clinics with labs, imaging, surgery, testing and procedure spaces. The clinic buildings are shaded by a system of perforated sunscreen panels and organized around garden courtyards that offer natural light and ventilation to all patient and staff spaces.
Design Concept:
Taking advantage of Kunming’s verdant landscapes and a year-round temperate climate, the hospital was sustainably developed to have an open-to-air concourse and garden courtyards to connect the out-patient, diagnostic and in-patient areas. Each of the facades are layered with perforated screens to filter the light, to allow for natural ventilation and to incorporate a series of garden spaces through-out the building. In addition to providing for a visually and thermally comfortable environment for the patient, the layered screening also allows for a more practical and necessary need, a hidden place for the families to hang freshly laundered clothing to dry.
This emphasis on environmental sensitivity is carried through to the expansive landscaped green roof that covers large portions of the building. The roof ensures a pleasant view from inpatient rooms while absorbing rainwater and protecting the building below.
