Improving emergency services, finding solutions for a lack of space, and modernizing dilapidated spaces: the challenge undertaken by the Birtz Bastien Beaudoin Laforest / Jodoin Lamarre Pratte / Provencher_Roy architectes consortium for the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI). A 32,000-m2 expansion and a 1,500-m2 redesign of the existing building provide the centre with the necessary equipment to respond to the needs of the community.
The project is comprised of a new ambulatory care centre, connected underground parkade, training centre employing cutting-edge technology, critical care units, and a modernized Emergency Department. The spaces revolve around well-considered circulations and the simple notion of clarifying the comings and goings of building users by creating distinct fluid pathways for clinical groups and the public.
While the 3rd and 4th floors are dedicated to care units, the 5th floor accommodates office spaces. Here, the flexibility of usages prevails. If one day the MHI develops different spatial needs, the administration zone can be demolished to convert the full floor into a care unit comprised of 30 beds. The team proposed an extension around and above the north block, to integrate the existing structure in the most logical, economical, efficient, and resourceful way possible.
At the MHI, the team proposes to make use of a maximum of green spaces devised for patients and medical personnel alike. While before the centre only disposed of a few uninviting grass patches at the edges of buildings and parking lots, today it benefits from a design integrating a green terrace accessible to patients of the Intensive Care unit on the 3rd floor, and a vast green courtyard in which users are invited to stroll and slow down their pace. The resulting enhancement of patient and personnel well-being represents a first step in the healing process.
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