HEALTHCARE
Selected Projects:

Over the last ten years the office has been working on healthcare projects in Poland with the largest being a new 1000-bed public hospital in Torun, providing multi-branch services on all stages of the design, from concept through to final completion in March 2022. The hospital comprises twelve operating theatres, ICU, A & E department, diagnostic unit, eight specialist wards, out-patients department, psychiatric unit, administration building, multi-storey car park and a dedicated helipad. In all of this the hospital was designed effectively room-by-room, utilizing UK and German standards adapted to Polish norms and then taken through the complicated Polish planning permit procedures. The design team, under Agnieszka and Simon, consisted of forty staff with architects, structural engineers, ventilation and electrical engineers, traffic, geodesic, landscape, fire and health & safety consultants. The scope of the project was extended three times as the client saw the benefits of providing a fully coordinated hospital on the site with excellent communication between all buildings and a coherent design ethos, with a final construction cost of 125 million euros.

In close cooperation with our team of architects and interior designers we also produced a fully comprehensive graphics and way-finding signage system for the entire hospital, including the site, buildings, departments and individual rooms.

4105.eu were invited to provide the concept for the refurbishment and extension to this hospital, the first such new mental hospital in Poland since 1945. 

The brief was to create a new vision for the hospital, providing new wards, diagnostic & clinical centre, administration and kitchens with all departments to be linked.  The response was to plan the demolition of many smaller buildings and place new ward accommodation between the retained buildings to form a private courtyard with an existing mature tree. Closing the sides of this new court and linking all the ward buildings is the new clinical department. Of particular importance was the clear ordering of public / private areas on this compact site.  In addition to the architectural vision we were asked to provide a new urban landscape design for the grounds taking inspiration from Torun’s most famous son Nikolas Kopernikus and his revolutionary theory regarding the orbit of the sun and earth.

JENA  RADIOLOGY  UNIT

Located in the newly refurbished university hospital campus in the former East Germany the design was for a unit to house a diagnostic scanner, changing rooms, reception, waiting area and administrative offices.
The new single storey building was placed next to the existing two-storey department building with a new glazed link. Special attention was paid to the stringent codes for protection against harmful radiation. Materials for the new building are stock bricks, to match the existing, and coloured steel with a special design for the floor finishes throughout the building based upon paintings by Kandinsky.

KALISZ  RADIOTHERAPY  UNIT

This concept for a new 3,500 m2 radiotherapy facility, including two linear accelerators, CT tomography suite, wards, out-patients’ department and twelve-room hostel places all accommodation within the existing grounds with all areas closely linked. Extensive consultation was undertaken with local radiation and oncology consultants to prepare the layouts to the specialised areas according to local codes and practices. Special emphasis was placed upon humanising the spaces, particularly the waiting areas and circulation that all have natural daylight and views to courtyards in this most sensitive of all hospital environments.

LABS  BERLIN

The site in Berlin Lichtenberg was chosen for the refurbishment of an existing hospital and new laboratories to test patients who have work-related illnesses. The existing buildings were fully refurbished to provide new wards whilst a new laboratory was built in the park. The new building consisted of laboratories to the ground and first floors with a second floor of research facilities and meeting rooms. Special planning was required to coordinate the precast concrete structure and all services during the construction process.

In this competition for the hospital in Warsaw - Otwock we were invited by Kalata Architekci studio to be part of their team, as medical planning specialists. The project gained the second prize.
The Swiss spa-like architecture incorporated all medical departments including Admissions & Emergency, Diagnostic Suite, Operation Theatres, wards, outpatient and rehabilitation departments. The space planning provided connection to green areas outside, roof gardens and a ground floor patio café.
Internal flexibility of functions and the modular technology for construction of the external envelope of the building offered a rapid and economical way of construction and future ease of use.

 This Project for the Children’s Hospital in Poznań was prepared by our team as a competition entry, which unfortunately didn’t win but was highly prized.

The concept had a clear space divission between public, semi-public and restricted medical areas and was based on a very clear idea of  inter-connections between the departments. That meant that, if needed, the wards could be adapted without major construction works to provide space for different patient types. Special attention was paid to space & utilities for parents who were welcomed to stay with their children during the recovery process.

The hospital had many non-medical areas like a school, library and gardens especially designed for childrens’ use. 

 The Bauhaus School, formed in Weimar by Walter Gropius in 1919, provided the inspiration for the administrative regional health authority HQ building, set on a hill overlooking the beautiful and historic city. With the requirement for 40,000 m2 of offices in four major departments plus dining facilities and a bank the challenge was to combine these elements in one expressive form whilst creating a discernable identity to each. Four ‘Blocken’ were conceived, all connected by a glass central space with each block then divided into sub-departments and common spaces. Within the strict planning laws an additional level of accommodation was provided on the top of each block, as a ‘Dachgeschoss’, by setting the accommodation behind the main façade at that level and providing terraces to the offices. The form of the block was maintained by deep parapets supported on circular columns. Facades were kept simple with white rendered walls and black ribbon windows.