Our design and choice of materials focused on recognisability, transparency, daylight, functionality and orientation.
The entrance doors and the fully glazed entrance hall of the hospital are accentuated by six wide concrete partitions framing seven glazed facades, each of which is three floors high.
The lower three-floor structure is built from plain red brick and houses the treatment layer, the public layer and the staff layer. The technical layer on the fourth floor features an outer wall of frosted glass U sections and visually connects to the upper nursing and medical care layers, where the outer wall is made from light grey, flat aluminium panels. These project away from their supports on the front and ‘hover’ above the entrance. The floor plans are based on a matrix structure of modules on a grid measuring 7.2 x 7.2m, separated by daylight patios full of plants and connected by glazed corridors which also serve as brightly lit waiting rooms.
Visitor orientation is optimised by the orthogonal design with two transverse main axes, the purposeful use of daylight, plants and the different, easily recognisable characters of the departments and wards.
The different user groups (ranging from patient to student and from doctor and employee to researcher) have each been given their own easily recognisable spaces, accentuated by the use of an intelligent colour concept based on four corporate colours in one direction, combined with four flower motifs in the other direction. The flower motifs used in the hospital are all based on plants named after St Antonius. In the Middle Ages, all of these plants were thought to have healing powers.
A great deal of attention has been given to good logistics and a highly functional layout. For example, there are separate lifts for visitors and staff. The service lifts open out onto service corridors which connect directly to service areas such as the kitchens for the different wards, bed management centres and storage areas. The visitor lifts open out onto public areas with a clear view of the exterior and provide direct access to public areas such as day-care rooms and terraces.
In the vertical direction, the functions are separated by layer. For example, the doctors have their own working area on the staff layer directly above their outpatient clinics. The outpatient clinic is public, the staff layer is not. In their dedicated working area with open-plan workstations, meeting rooms, secretarial areas and coffee corners, there are more than enough opportunities for meeting colleagues and talking informally outside the hospital treatment area or the outpatient clinic. Because the staff layer is placed between the outpatient clinic and hospital treatment area, the walking distances are short.
The training centre – the Antonius Academy – is also located in the staff layer and the transparency of the hospital’s training programme is reflected by the abundant use of glass partition walls.
The Sint Antonius Hospital has set itself demanding sustainability goals. The concrete floors are thermally activated so that heating and cooling can take place using a low-temperature medium. The water required for this is brought up to temperature by an underground thermal energy storage system. The roofs, which are accessible, feature roof gardens. The lighting system includes daylight controls and movement sensors.
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