The studio AGI Architects, based in Madrid and Kuwait, has designed a hospital where the program is organized around a series of courtyards that reach the façades, providing light and privacy to examination's room and other spaces. A series of perforated plates and trusses give the building a continuous and monolithic look, as well as a drop of the place's identity. The fluidity and diversity of the movements inside hightlights, creating a chain of changing public spaces, which avoid the typical corridors of hospitals.
Description of the project by AGi architects
Ali Mohammed T. Al-Ghanim Clinic building by AGi architects stands as a pioneer in the healthcare sector, where challenging issues such as privacy and security are addressed using a new model, where courtyards attached to the façade are the driving element behind this unique typology.
The program occupies the entirety of the site, and from afar the building is viewed as a monolithic element solidifying its ground and creating a high walled fortress protecting from vandalism and maximizing privacy. The courtyards are carved into the building, allowing for natural light into all the clinics. The concept of the façade generating light, views and ventilation is reversed; and the courtyards are brought inwards from the perimeter creating further privacy. Examination rooms have been located towards the closed outer façade and opened to the interior courtyards in which common space flows.
Working directly with manufacturers and parametric processes that generate maximum areas based on minimum thicknesses, and adaptable geometries to incorporate efficient substructures have allowed creating a contemporary mesh that connects to the cultural identity of end users. An anodized and perforated metal sheet allows sufficient light to enter, constructing a veiled threshold in between exterior and internal courtyards.
Upon entering the clinic, a colorful ceramic mosaic welcomes patients. This range of colors will go with visitors during their stay at the clinic, identifying counters of each medical specialty with different colors included in the mosaic. This common practice in the hospital use is especially useful when building users belong to very different cultures, users who not only do not know the language but use different alphabets –Devanagari, Arabic or Roman-.
Due to the density and variety of the program presented in this clinic, the spaces are sectioned off into multiple self-sufficient departments, which can operate independently from one another. Internal circulation is organized in a fluid way, conceiving space as a succession of linked rooms and public areas, avoiding as much as possible the typical corridor scheme of hospital typology.
The Ali Mohammed T. Al-Ghanim Clinic is viewed as an iconic progressive building, in which this vision could not have been apprehended without the generous donation of Mr. Ali Mohammad Thuniyan Al-Ghanim.
CREDITS. DATA SHEET.-
Architects.- AGi architects, Nasser B. Abulhasan, Joaquin Pérez-Goicoechea.
Collaborators.- Stefania Rendinelli, Hanan Alkouh, Gwenola Kergall, Bruno Gomes, Ana López. Cerrato.
Type.- Health.
Client.- Ministry of Health of Kuwait / Mr. Ali Mohammad Thuniyan Al-Ghanim.
Budget.- Confidential.
Area.- 6,500 sqm.
Dates.- 2011-2014.
