Athens, Greece
Mark Carroll of Renzo Piano Building Workshop and local architects Betaplan together with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation are constructing three new hospitals in Greece to support the National Health System that aims to not leave the less central regions behind in terms of health services improvement and adequation with completion scheduled for 2025.
The Foundation launched the program in 2017 to benefit three facilities on the Greek territory: the University Pediatric Hospital of Thessaloniki and the General Hospitals of Sparta and Komotini.
The initiative also intends to be an anthology of guiding principles for an innovative and harmonious recovery process from the decade-long crisis Greece has gone through.
The three projects are reunited by a holistic vision of sustainability, not as a mere style, but as a program of performance and experience for all users of a treatment and research path: those who are treated, those who assist, those who work.
The designs pay close attention to the user experience of the patients, their families, and the hospital staff.
The design approach is centered on people and steady attention toward the natural environment within which they become integrated, thanks to a careful utilization of renewable energy resources and of the principles of energetic and social sustainability.
The employment of light and of natural ventilation find their application as mainstream principles both in public spaces and in patients’ rooms.
The basic idea of the three projects is, to give shape to facilities, which are totally immersed in nature, in order to foster a quiet, relaxing environment for patients and their relatives, but also for doctors, nurses, and all staff.
Nature plays a critical role in such vision of architecture, just as it did in ancient times in the healing temples dedicated to Asclepius, the god of medicine: the dialogue connecting the structures to the landscape, the continuity of interior spaces with parks, vegetation, and open “healing gardens,” are a fundamental element in projects that are structured principles of biophilic design, by the idea of nature as an active participant of a healing experience.
In terms of a master plan, the new University Pediatric Hospital of Thessaloniki, located in the central region of Greek Macedonia, is conceived as a campus to provide local secondary and tertiary pediatric services and national-scale Mental Health services for children and adolescents, clustered in the main building.
It will also include a Research Center with educational and training spaces for the academic medical faculty and research laboratories, as well as educational spaces and academic offices, administrative offices, a cafeteria, public parking, staff parking, the central energy center, and a helipad.
The design pays close attention to a global user experience built on a deep relationship with nature—with interior spaces featuring transparent and permeable connections to an outdoor park, to encourage dialogue and support—and the need for proximity and interaction between users (there is an extra bed for each clinical bed).
Project: Three New Hospital Buildings in Greece
Architects: Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Design Lead: Mark Carroll
Architects of Record: Betaplan Architects & Planners
Client: Stavros Niarchos Foundation
