Description

The Zaans Medisch Centrum professes to be the first lean hospital in Europe. Prevention of waste at all levels – money, time, resources – was key. Relatively small in scale, the Centrum’s height hardly exceeds that of the trees in its vicinity. These create a soft transition to the city of Zaandam. A so-called ‘care boulevard’ contributes to the seamless integration of the building into its urban setting. This ‘boulevard’ – a clearly marked pedestrian route that leads to the hospital’s entrance – contains various shops, forming a functional link between hospital and city. How lean design can be combined with the principles of a healing environment inside the building was tested with life size mock-ups of 15 departments.

Zaans Medisch Centrum distinguishes five patient flows: acute, elective, outpatient, diagnostics (supporting primary care) and the clinic. The ground floor as well as the first and second floors are reserved for the outpatient departments and the hot floor: an operating theater with eight rooms, the intensive care unit, cardiac care, the diagnostic center, a day care center, the laboratory, a pharmacy and public functions. Complementing these units, the hospital has several theme clusters organized according to the ‘shop-in-shop’ principle, which results in designated areas such as the pain center, the exercise center, facilities for oncology (in cooperation with the Westfriesgasthuis in Hoorn and the Waterlandziekenhuis in Purmerend) and a cardiovascular center. The clinic is located on the fourth and the fifth floor; balconies give patients and visitors direct access to the world outside.

Mecanoo combined a square building with a rectangular volume that is situated at an angle of 45 degrees; on the ground floor and the first floor they are separated by the entrance hall that connects the square facing the city with the care boulevard. Perpendicular to this hall, a two-story interior street connects the two volumes. Skylights guarantee ample daylight. Both ends of the street have a green atrium. The lower three floors are clad in red brick that refer to the buildings in the vicinity. The third floor cantilevers slightly outward; the clinic is dressed in vertical panels in a light gray shade. Wooden curved lines (marking the skylights and interior balconies on the first floor) and artwork that refers to the history of the Zaan region help to give the building a friendly, neighborly appearance.

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Originally published in: Cor Wagenaar, Noor Mens, Guru Manja, Colette Niemeijer, Tom Guthknecht, Hospitals: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2018.