A Virtual Tour of the Design Set to Redefine Rural Healthcare in Nepal
Commissioned by Nepal’s Ministry of Health & Population, this new 18,000 square foot public medical facility is located in the Jumla District, an area characterized by its inaccessibility and poverty.
Sited along the Karnali River and named after the natural hot springs, the hospital signifies a renewed emphasis on health in a region where advanced healthcare services have been historically limited due to the rugged terrain. Crafted from rammed earth using local soil and labor, the new hospital will embody sustainability, affordability, and respect for local ecology.
Comprising three interconnected volumes that encircle a healing garden with native plantings, the hospital offers panoramic views of the Karnali River valley. This low-carbon and passive solar building hosts emergency, out-patient, and administrative departments on the west side, ensuring easy access. On the eastern side, the in-patient department, surgery, and maternity ward nestle, providing the needed privacy.
Read More About the Project
Project: Tatopani Hospital
Firm: Building Bureau
Finalist, 11th Annual A+Awards, Unbuilt Sustainable Non-Residential Project
Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen is a hospital for preventing and treating diabetes. The hospital occupies a rectangular site with two entrances open on two opposite sides. There are four inner gardens on the first floor and two of them greet the visitors immediately upon their entry. Common areas such as circulation spaces and reception sit in the middle of the floor plan, while most individual rooms are lined on the outer ring.
Maggie’s centers provide free cancer support and information to patients and their friends and families. The centers are located across the UK, each in a unique style while all of them embrace nature as a way of healing. Maggie’s Leeds stands on the last patch of greenery at St James’s University Hospital. The sloping site is bounded by roads and a multi-story car park. Instead of flattening the landscape, the spaces descend along the landscape, creating views that vary from open to secluded.
This new hospital wing of the orthopedic center Waldkliniken Eisenberg enjoys an immersive view of the Thuringian Forest. The six-story building has 128 patient rooms, all located on the outer ring of the circular floor plans. Floor-to-ceiling windows invite unblocked views of the natural landscape into the rooms while providing natural light and fresh air to the rooms.
The expansion of Santa Fe de Bogotá Foundation is sited in the compact urban context of the city of Bogotá. It comprises an eleven-story block and a single-story base. The roof of the base becomes a plaza opening to the roads, with staircases inviting people onto it. Red bricks cover the expansion as a response to the existing buildings around. Strips of pavement on the plaza are replaced by plants. Different types of plants vary in height, breaking the flatness and solidity of the brick plaza.
Maggie’s Gartnavel sits humbly on the land of the Gartnavel hospital in Glasgow, close to the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre. The single-level volume comprises a series of interlocking rooms, with an inner garden in the middle of the ring of rooms. With a flat roof and floor levels that respond to the natural topography, the rooms vary in height. Common areas including the dining room, kitchen, library and a large activity room are on the side with taller ceilings and the counseling rooms are more intimate.
Neighboring a nursery, elementary school and junior high school, this dental clinic is designed as an enjoyable place for both children and parents. This two-story timber building accommodates not only a clinic but also a bookstore and daycare center. By combining programs, the design team wishes to encourage people to come not just for their appointment.