The new Meander Medical Centre in Amersfoort in The Netherlands is a completely new sort of hospital. Based on the principles of 'healing environment' with single rooms and lots of daylight and views on the surrounding landscape. Winner of the WAN Award Health Care 2014.

A health institute of more than 100,000 m², where, despite the huge area, the people occupy centre stage and the contact with the surrounding green environment is perceptible in the whole building. A so-called ‘healing environment’ where, also because only single rooms were built, the patient will have more peace and – as research has shown – will recover more quickly. As from the end of 2013, the first patients have been admitted to this extremely spacious, light hospital.

WINNER WAN AWARD
Meander has wun the WAN Award Health Care 2014 because of the focus on patient and visitor. The jury found Meander a well deserved winner. Some jury comments: 'it’s a proper city, which is really hard to pull off well'. And: 'it hits some big innovation buttons in terms of workflow of people. Essentially this is a clinical facility but it has definitely got a sense of humanity at the core'. More info can be found at www.atelierpro.nl.

MAIN STRUCTURE
The composition of buildings that together form the hospital, has a transparent village-like structure, with a system of public spaces (streets, squares) from where all the ‘houses’ are within easy reach. The main street is ‘de Laan’ (the lane) and this is the centre axis of the plan, straight from the entrance. All parts of the building that are open for visitors are visible and within reach from this main street. Three exceptional glass covered rooms have been designed to border de Laan. They form the major orientation points in the village and accommodate important public functions, such as the restaurant, the pharmacy and the auditorium.

PEOPLE
The ambition was to design a humane environment in which people, who are under enough pressure as it is, could reside in a comforting way. This not only concerns the patients; visitors and employees should also feel comfortable and be able to find their way. Therefore, there is a lot of open space between the buildings, allowing the surrounding landscape to deeply enter the scheme and thus providing daylight into the heart of the various building parts and a view of the surroundings. As it happens, daylight and a view outside are essential in determining people’s wellbeing. The materials used in the façades, perfectly fit with this theme: masonry in light and dark colours, wooden laths, but in particular glass are part of the outdoor facades.

SINGLE ROOMS
The nursing wards of this new hospital form part of an innovative concept. Each patient has his or her own room with a bathroom unit. These rooms are situated on a wide, wedge-shaped traffic area with a lounge for patients, visitors and employees. This lounge offers a seating accommodation with a large window that gives a splendid, panoramic view of the surroundings. Moreover, there are computer workstations and a pantry for making coffee and tea. Due to this design, there are less traditional, long corridors and the orientation within each ward is arranged in an obvious manner.

OUTPATIENT CLINICS
The outpatient clinics are situated in separate buildings, which are grouped on the right side of De Laan. These look like spread fingers, lying freely in the landscape. Here, flexibility is the major issue. These are office buildings in which the departments can be used flexibly and in all sorts of ways. In addition, expansion is possible by adding extra ‘finger parts’ to the finger structure. Large numbers of patients visit this part of the building. Therefore, there are large glass-covered areas between these fingers that provide spaciousness for the substantial flow of patients. Waiting does not take place on the wards, but particularly on these large light squares, where the catering facilities are also situated.

LOGISTICS
The key solution for proper logistics is a strict separation of visitors, personnel and goods. The ‘hospital machine’ has been hidden from the patients’ view as much as possible. Under the building, around a parking garage for 700 cars, lies a logistic corridor that connects all service elevators of both the nursing towers and the outpatient clinics. The building can be provisioned 24 hours a day, without any visitor or patient being aware of this. Thus, the goods are never transported over the wards themselves, as the logistic coupling-points are always situated at the far end of a ward. In addition, the transport of patients to the operating ward follows a route that is separated from the visitors.

Pictures: Dirk Verwoerd and John Marshall.