Description

In Barcelona, art-nouveau architects like Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Antoni Gaudí defined Catalan Modernism. As part of this movement, Josep Maria Miró i Guibernau realized the Hospital General de Granollers in 1910, Granollers being located some 25 km north of Barcelona. Lacking the grandiosity of Domenech’s Sant Pau and the exuberance of much of Gaudí’s work, it is nevertheless a listed building. Its U-shaped volume embraces a court with trees in the central part, in front of the two towers that mark the central axis of the building. Originally, the main entrance was located precisely in the middle, between the towers. In the course of time buildings were added to the back and to the right, which absorbed most of the hospital functions. Slightly oblique, a large, two-storied house (referred to as ‘Historical Home’) was built at the back of the old hospital. The architects of Pinearq, Albert de Pineda, Juan Manuel Garcia, Carlos Frauca, Gerardo Solera and Pedro Pombinho, decided to keep the larger, perpendicular hospital blocks and empty the terrain between the original hospital, which now serves mainly administrative functions, and the new house. On that site, the new day hospital forms a rectangular volume that runs parallel to the base of the U-shaped historical building, connected with it via an entrance hall and a patio. Acting as a central area that gives access to all departments, the extension serves as the logistical hub of the entire hospital, bringing back the functional coherence that was lost by adding extra volumes seemingly at random. The entrance hall can be reached via a connection that pierces through the old building, to the left of the original entrance. With its four floors, the new addition is slightly higher than the original monument, which has two floors topped with the steep roofs of the attic.

The lower floor of the two-level basement has an external access patio for the supply of medical gases, some of the maintenance areas and a services pit that connects to the new services facilities building. At the level above, the vehicle access to the mortuary, the exit for dirty laundry, supply and storage spaces as well as the pathology department can be found; though not part of the outpatient facilities, the new building’s infrastructure was used to restructure the entire hospital. A tunnel connects this floor to the geriatric department. The new entrance at the ground floor provides access to the hall and the day hospitals in the extension. The first floor can be accessed either from the main hall or from the ground level entry placed at the backyard. This level contains part of the hot floor with the major ambulatory surgery unit and endoscopies room. The two parallel wings on the back of the extension house the medical support offices. The second floor has a leveled access from the backyard. Most of the medical offices and their support rooms are situated on the second and third floor. These two floors also provide level connections with the Historical Home that still awaits refurbishment. The fourth floor is for the facilities services.

The new wing is conceived of as a screen that sets the stage for the listed building. The effect of a screen is enhanced by cladding the entire façade in wooden lamellae pierced at irregular intervals with vertical openings that mark the windows and allow fire fighters emergency access. The façade facing the other sides repeats the rhythm over vertical openings at the three lower floors, which are clad in dark slate tiles, while the top services floor is finished in natural color corrugated aluminium sheet and endowed with wider ventilation grids. Two parallel volumes stretch out in the landscaped surroundings, repeating the open courtyard of the historical building at a smaller scale. In the entrance hall, warm, dark wood combines with the broken white of the floor and the gray of the columns to create a comforting atmosphere.

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