Meander Medisch Centrum

Cor Wagenaar, Noor Mens

Description

This impressive new hospital replaces two predecessors with vastly different cultures, one having been founded by Catholic devotees, the other by their Protestant counterparts. One objective of the new institution was to foster a community spirit among its members of staff. When the merger of the two previous hospitals was contemplated, Dutch healthcare architecture was still dominated by a handful of specialized firms that produced large quantities of indistinct buildings which strictly followed the rules laid out by the national planning agency. Convinced that Amersfoort needed something better than that, the hospital board invited Atelier PRO, an office with a large portfolio of buildings in many categories, but not in healthcare – an unprecedented move at the time. As the decision-making process dragged on, the political context changed, and in 2006, when Atelier PRO began with the design, the national agency had been dissolved. The Meander Medisch Center (Dutch for ‘Medical Center’) combines domesticity and publicness, the one represented by people’s individual homes, the other by urban public spaces. Hans van Beek, principal architect, sees the new hospital as a village, characterized by the pattern of streets and squares, usually dotted with landmark buildings, and the parceling structure in between. The access road culminates at the main entrance and gives way to the central spine of the hospital: a spacious, glass-covered street that is dubbed the ‘Avenue’. Since a high ground water table made the construction of a parking garage too expensive and since an outside carpark would have destroyed the building’s idyllic natural setting, the ground level was raised by 4 m, allowing the accommodation of a parking facility underneath. A friendly slope outside leads the visitors to the main entrance, located some 2 m above the bus stop and the bicycle parking; the remaining part of the slope is inside the building. The spine of the central Avenue is the most lively part of the hospital. It connects three spacious, covered squares: a so-called Brink (which refers to the central green areas found in some Dutch villages), a Foyer, both to the right and to the left a wintergarten called ‘Oranjerie’. The back exit of the Avenue gives access to a psychiatric ward that is located slightly off the main building in a series of pavilion-like buildings. A strict separation of front and back office prevents the circulation of food and equipment from interfering with the flows of patients, visitors and staff. The outpatient departments, a particularly busy part, are situated on the right side of the Avenue and connected to the wards on the left by bridges. The wards separate the central spine from the hot floor, a solution that results in a rather large distance between the hot floor and the outpatient departments. While the design of the hot floor is determined by the medical processes, the other parts refer to building types outside the realm of medicine: the wards were conceived of as a luxury hotel, while the outpatient department took inspiration from office spaces. Emphasizing a private atmosphere, single-patient rooms are the norm in the new hospital, the first general hospital in the Netherlands to completely abandon the classical multiple bedroom. Sliding doors connect the rooms to a so-called living room, a wedge-shaped lounge that offers a view either to the greenery outside or to the Avenue. Each living room has a coffee corner and a computer station. The fluent transition from the private realm of the rooms via the semi-private environment of the lounge to the public domain of generous circulation spaces is expected to stimulate recovering patients to gradually expand their radius. Wayfinding is greatly facilitated by the simple overall layout and the visual connections with the outside. Color further enhances the navigation through the building. Illuminated green panels signal the hospital reception desks, for instance, and the entries of the clinics are marked by signal colors and waiting areas by a green wall. Color is also used to enliven the interior: the overall effect is one of serenity and calm. Warm, natural materials such as wood have been used in the public areas as well as in the patient rooms, and thanks to the abundance of glass there is plenty of daylight. However, the lighting concept of the hospital prevents the effect of a flood-lit factory, accepting low-light conditions where this contributes to a pleasant atmosphere. Wishing to avoid an institutional feel, the architects decided to design all the furniture themselves – some 3,000 pieces.