Description

Traditionally, the residents of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) used to travel to Europe and the United States for state-of-the-art medical treatment and care, but in recent years, the government has been carefully investing in new facilities and technology, partnering with leading international medical providers to bring specialist knowledge and expertise to the country. With the opening in March 2015 of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, residents of the UAE can make use of the sophisticated care services available at the first replication of US-based Cleveland Clinic outside of North America. Cleveland Clinic’s network includes facilities in Ohio, Las Vegas, Florida and Toronto.

Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, a 364-bed facility, is built as a composition of six rectangular blocks and slabs, constituting the ‘Gallery’ (a public space), a diagnostics and treatment section, an intensive care unit, the administrative wing and a patient tower. The outpatient clinics comprise 243 examination rooms. The uppermost slab, clad in a double-glazed curtain wall, contains the inpatient acute care wards (the ICU is being housed in a cantilevered wing beneath). The building can be seen as a contemporary interpretation of the 1960s matchbox-on-a-muffin or Breitfuß type, the subdivision of the lower levels representing the transition to patient-centered care in dedicated volumes, and the relatively modest scale of the slab with patient wards expressing the decreasing number of days inpatients spend in hospital. Wayfinding is based on the distinctive function of the slabs and boxes and the separation of flows, and facilitated by the views to the outside.

Arranged around a central water feature, sitting on an island and overlooking the Arabian Gulf, water is a principal theme of the hospital. Landscaping, roof gardens and greenery inside the building provide direct visual contact with nature. These qualities reflect the principles of evidence-based design, which inspired the project at all levels. A retail gallery offers distractions of patients and visitors. With over 20 floors, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi adds an architectural landmark in the center of Al Maryah Island, the city’s new business district, and symbolizes the very best that hospital-based medicine has to offer.

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