The urban impact of the new hospital’s location was analysed beyond its inclusion in the Lower University Hospital Complex, having further resonances in the surrounding deconstructed neighbourhoods, in the presence of the Miko Garden to the west and in the Upper University Hospital Complex to the south.
The design of the historical park of the complex covers the analysis and index of the existing tall vegetation, the preservation of the old historical trails and alleys and the design of new connections in order to reclaim this green space. Considering that this park is situated on a steep slope facing north, we propose to study the possibility of creating small meadows by removing diseased or old trees so that sunlight can penetrate these areas. The old historical trails and alleys will be tailored by the layout of the small vegetation (taping plants and shrubs). Some remarkable species will be used for those small vegetation patches (mentioned in the situation plan 1:500), which will dynamize and contribute to define a unique character of this place: a therapeutic, boosting and regenerating one.
As an integrated part of the Lower University Hospital Complex, the proposed hospital building is subordinating itself to the compositional axis, while orientating itself in parallel with the force lines of the three terraces of the historical complex. Moreover, its orientation adopts the same rule used in the case of the existing pavilions, while the gesture of sliding of the two proposed volumes is dictated by the conditionings imposed by the property restrictions.
As an answer to the other neighbouring structures, the hospital’s spatial layout proposes a series of courtyards with particular functions and accesses, which enhance the existing intrinsic qualities of the area: there is a dialogue between the Church, the Clinical Hospital of Pneumo-phthisiology Pavilion and the proposed centre through an open square, a direct accessibility of the semi-covered Emergency Reception Centre’s courtyard from Victor Babes Street, and an effortless flow in the park and in the new patients’ courtyard through adding a parvis in the compositional axis of the complex.
Architectural language. The proposal aims to be an act of concentrating an architectural language based on structural modularity and functional rigour. It assumes a neutral and abstinent timelessness, enhanced only by the evocation of the décroche leitmotif found in the architectural composition of the historical pavilions. Existing textures and details are evoked by the usage of monochrome ceramics and by the apparent concrete belts and cornices, their aging over time ensuring a referential dialogue with the constructed context.