The concept was therefore the result of a design process which had, as its first objective, the achievement of a complex balance between architectural choices aimed at promoting qualitative and aesthetic values and the adoption of an organisational model meeting the requirements of innovation and functionality.
The result is a volumetric layout in the form of a “piastra con torre sovrapposta” articulated on nine above-ground levels and one basement level. The basement houses the general services with logistic paths and flows which never interfere with the clinical and patient flows. The ground floor houses the emergency room and all the functions intended for outpatients (about 80%): the latter are accessible through dedicated paths and differentiated from those for the inpatients. The first floor is the area of high clinical and technological complexity (operating block, intensive care unit, sterilisation station) for assistance to critical patients.
New Presidential Hospital, Bouchaui
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Principles:
Iconic Architecture
Organisation
International Standards
Designing a new hospital for the President and high state officials was a challenge as compelling as it was complex. This is because a presidential hospital, in addition to being a state-of-the-art healthcare facility, must own several characteristics which are a direct consequence of its specific role: it must pay particular attention to security, access control and the protection of the complete privacy of the users; it must guarantee the maximum efficiency and effectiveness of the therapeutic pathways, especially the critical ones; it must be characterised by the excellent quality of the spaces as well as by its image, carrying a symbolic and iconic value.
Details
Characteristics
On the second level is the "birth point" with simple, immediate, humanised and safe clinical and care paths between the labour and delivery block, the obstetrical inpatient unit and the neonatal pathology unit. On the five upper levels are the inpatient units for acute patients on a continuous cycle, organised in modules in order to guarantee their best management in terms of staff. The last two floors house, respectively, junior suites and rooms reserved for presidential hospitalisation.
The overall organisation is very straightforward, thanks to the definition of clear hierarchies and levels of privacy that increase moving towards the top of the building.
Optimisation of the efficiency and effectiveness in the management of the clinical pathway of patients were the ideas guiding the project as well as the relationship between the different services and functional areas. At the same time, construction and technological choices aimed for total flexibility and rapid convertibility over time: to this end, the structural grid and the load-bearing capacity of the floors were designed to allow for rapid changes. For the same reason, “dry” building solutions were preferred, and system engineering solutions suitable for accommodating future implementations were chosen.
