The Kunshan Eastern Healthcare Center was designed for an international invited competition for a new 180 000m2 hospital in Kunshan, China.
With a total planning area of 240 000m2, the design includes a main hospital building with Outpatient (clinical) functions, Inpatient wards, and a significant amount of Research and Teaching facilities. The design also features an extensive landscape plan as well as student dormitories and ancillary functions.
Designed as a Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital, the facility will offer a myriad of top-class treatments from both Chinese and Western medicine as well as surgery and critical care services. Inpatient capacity for the hospital is set at 1500 beds in the first phase, and an additional 500 beds in the second phase.
The architectural design creates a balanced and sustainable, ecologically and technically advanced overall solution for the hospital complex. Hospital functions are clearly articulated in both plan and section to allow for maximum efficiency in spatial planning, transportation and service delivery; and easy orientation inside and outside of the building. The entire facility is based on a module system, which promotes the interconnection of spaces and creates opportunities for future expansion.
Tectonically, the hospital is bright, white, and clean. The masses themselves express building functions, and, along with the connections between them, can be understood even from the outside. A great effort was made to ensure the spaces are as humane and friendly as possible.
The proposal is a combination of modern internationally high quality architectural language and also traditional Chinese architectural features, especially in the interior and in the outside courtyards and parks.