Description

The Rey Juan Carlos Hospital adds a striking note to the Madrid suburb of Móstoles: if it doesn’t look like a healthcare facility, this may be because, to some, it doesn’t look like a building at all – not in the traditional way at least. Rectangular openings for doors and windows, for instance, a common aspect of almost all buildings, have been banned. Instead, Rafael de La-Hoz Architects designed an abstract composition of a rectangular box that is covered by a screen of narrow horizontal bands in a dark color, which protects the interior against inclement sunlight. This structure is topped by two oval towers clad in bright, shining material that forms diamond-shaped panels, producing a conspicuous contrast with the horizontality of the box below. This sculptural icon does not correspond with its surroundings in any way, neither in its scale nor in its visual characteristics nor in the materials that were chosen. It is a completely introverted complex, a world in itself – and that is precisely what the designers had in mind. Remarkable though this building may be, it is not without precedent. It is a radical reinterpretation of the very well-known hospital type that is often referred to as a ‘matchbox on a muffin’, better known under its German name ‘Breitfuß’, namely a box at the bottom housing the treatment areas, the outpatient area and the emergency department, and separate volumes on top of it accommodating the inpatients. The three-storied box of the Rey Juan Carlos Hospital is made up of three parallel zones divided by two spacious patios: the inpatient wing faces the street and is connected with the main entrance, the central zone is reserved for the treatment areas, while the third zone, separated from the hot floor in the central zone by a calm and serene patio, accommodates the emergency department. The patios are lit by circular skylights, the consultancy rooms of the outpatient department face the street, shielded against direct sunlight by the impressive screen that envelops the entire low-rise box.

The two inpatient wards on top of it are organized around large open patios with gardens. Each tower has five floors of patient rooms, which can be reached via galleries that allow a view of the garden. The rooms face outside; each of the shining panels that clad the walls is pierced by a circular window that provides vistas of the surrounding suburban settlement while special care has been taken to protect the rooms against direct sunlight.

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