Surgical Clinic of La Croix-Rousse

Cor Wagenaar, Noor Mens

Description

Situated next to a historical hospital building on a terrace overlooking the city, this surgical clinic is Christian de Portzamparc’s first venture in healthcare architecture. The client preferred this renowned designer to specialized firms, expecting him to rethink the relation between hospital and city. By referring to the historical building and making optimum use of subterranean spaces, the six-floor building remains inobtrusive, despite its considerable length. De Portzamparc created a large rectangular volume that continues the building line of the old hospital, respects its height and repeats the rhythm of its windows, thus creating a present-day interpretation of the listed monument. The design strategy to engage in a dialog with the historical structure and the old city resulted in radical solutions for a major challenge: the new volume, roughly the size of the existing hospital, could not possibly accommodate all the functions the program required. Therefore, de Portzamparc needed to create more space. Underneath the terrace in front of the building, he added three floors; by piercing several lightwells through the terrace floor, he made sure the departments underneath received additional daylight. The lower levels are used as parking garage. Bridging the distance between historical setting and contemporary life, he then added a shiny, glazed square volume that looks rather self-contained but is clearly part of the new ensemble. A large entrance hall with bay windows and a spacious and light interior creates a soothing, reassuring atmosphere. Whereas the side of the building overlooking the terrace refers to the old hospital, the back façade resembles an apple with a few bites taken out. An elegantly curved wall clad in gray stone envelopes three wings that radiate outward from the main building; the far ends of two of these wings coincide with this outer skin. The other façades are plastered and painted in bright colors; the windows have been designed as sculptural elements. The surgical clinic for La Croix-Rousse has a clear layout. Apart from the main entrance, the ground floor also houses the consultation rooms and the day hospital. Technologically, the first floor is the heart of the building. Here we find 15 operating theaters, the recovery department with 50 beds, nine rooms for endoscopic research and spaces for radio therapy. Critical and intensive care is on the second floor; the three stories on top of that accommodate the patient wards. The single bedrooms have a multimedia unit attached to a flexible arm that is mounted on the bed.