“At a difficult time, when we are rethinking our healthcare facilities, I believe that Emergency Hospital 19 is an important step towards a sustainable, efficient and human-faced hospital model,” explains to Domus the architect Filippo Taidelli, who signed the project in collaboration with Technint Engeneering Construction. “The new structure built inside the Humanitas health centre, in Rozzano, strengthens the ability to respond to the virus in the Lombard area, but the idea was to make available a replicable model wherever emergencies related to infectious diseases arise.”
The future Emergency Hospital 19, within the Humanitas health center
Inaugurated in Rozzano (Milan) a new anti-pandemic hospital concept: it is modular, replicable, but above all on a human scale. It is signed by the Milanese architect Filippo Taidelli, who tells Domus about his idea of ‘therapeutic beauty’.
The six modules are: First Aid Module, located north of the building, equipped with covered and heated room; O.B.I. and Diagnostic Services Module; Intensive Care Module; Accessory and Support Services Module; Patients Module; Intervention Area Module.
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
The skin is a sequence of vertical coloured aluminium slats which, as the point of view changes, modify the perception of the facade, creating kinetic effects. The colours of the slats can be combined in different percentages on different facades: colours of the same tone, but with variable intensity, make the visual impact on the volumes dynamic and changeable.
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
The visual background for the patients, the greenery, contributes to the healing process and marks, with the change of vegetation, the passage of time.
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
In the Emergency Hospital 19 project, the multicoloured pastel striped wallpaper on the walls of rooms and corridors helps to break the monotony and continuity between rooms, ideally projecting the patient into a carefree en plein air atmosphere and helping him feel less dispersed or oppressed. The floors, which simulate a seamless wooden deck, and the warm light fixtures (3000 k) also help to create a more enveloping atmosphere. These devices are designed to recreate domestic sensations of serenity and well-being, and support the patient's delicate psychophysical balance.
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
Courtesy FTA- Filippo Taidelli Architetto
Photo Andrea Martiradonna
Photo Andrea Martiradonna
Photo Andrea Martiradonna
Photo Andrea Martiradonna
Photo Andrea Martiradonna
Photo Andrea Martiradonna
Photo Andrea Martiradonna
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- Laura Ragazzola
- 27 July 2020
- Rozzano, Italy
- Filippo Taidelli
- 2750 smq
- hospital
And in fact, thanks to the use of special prefabricated monoblocks, Emergency Hospital 19 can be easily transported and assembled in a very short time: “The 2,750 square metres of the centre of Rozzano were completed in just three months”, says the designer. “It is an extremely flexible modular structure, which can change ‘size’ as required, increasing or decreasing the surface area of the six specialist areas on which we focused”. Each area is guaranteed maximum functional autonomy and the organisation of the spaces ensures the necessary separation of flows between patients, doctors and healthcare professionals.
But the hospital of the future also looks to the environment: the entire structure, in fact, is wrapped in a sort of ‘second skin’, a shell that works as a climate mitigator (it reduces the incoming thermal energy by 50%) and is designed to adapt the building to the different climatic conditions of the site where it is built. The project also includes the creation of external green areas, an element which, in addition to being functional to the thermal design, and therefore to the sustainability of the building, becomes at the same time an effective therapeutic aid. In Rozzano the vegetation, framed by large windows, becomes a sort of visual backdrop in the wards. A patio area, at the centre of the structure, offers operators an anti-stress oasis surrounded by nature. After all, the humanisation of hospital spaces, which for Taidelli “means transforming the healthcare environment into a functional resource for the healing process”, is an essential element for the hospital of the future: light, colours, choice of materials and furnishings, “become important to create serenity, familiarity and well-being in otherwise anonymous spaces”, underlines Taidelli, who has been studying a new model of hospital architecture for years. “The ‘therapeutic beauty’ is precisely this: bringing everything that is outside into the hospital: life, affection, nature.”
- Rozzano (MI)
- Immobiliare Pieve S.r.l.
- 2750 smq
- 6 with first aid, intensive and sub-intensive care, negative pressure, diagnostics area, operating block and radiology
- E-Plant, Tecnologie Applicate, SOL, TELCOM
- Impresa Pirovano
- Locabox (prefabricated structures) and Operamed (prefabricated operating room structure)
- Gerflor and Greenwood (interior and exterior finishes), Isea (films and signage), Philips (monitors), Linet and Malvestio (medical furniture), Drager and BD (medical machinery), Sikkens (wall paintings)
- Disano, Performance in Lighting, iGuzzini e DGA
The building is configured as a modular prefabricated and replicable system, consisting of six main modules, which correspond to specific internal uses, and other sub-modules that allow an ordered and measured division of space, while favoring the adoption of prefabricated solutions that can significantly reduce construction time.
The six modules are: First Aid Module, located north of the building, equipped with covered and heated room; O.B.I. and Diagnostic Services Module; Intensive Care Module; Accessory and Support Services Module; Patients Module; Intervention Area Module.
For this reason, the external facade of Emergency Hospital 19 has a second modular skin, conceived as a "dress" adaptable to the climatic and image conditions required by the geographical context. The facade also acts as a climate mitigator of the envelope to contain solar radiation, increase user comfort and reduce the energy required to operate the air conditioning systems.
The skin is a sequence of vertical coloured aluminium slats which, as the point of view changes, modify the perception of the facade, creating kinetic effects. The colours of the slats can be combined in different percentages on different facades: colours of the same tone, but with variable intensity, make the visual impact on the volumes dynamic and changeable.
The patio area is the centre around which the operative and hospitalization departments develop: an area conceived as a small cloister of a Renaissance monastery. An oasis of relaxation in a protected environment, surrounded by nature and its scents, for a short break in the open air, where the medical staff can temporarily move away from the atmosphere of the hospital ward and mitigate stress.
Green areas represent an essential part of the project: they contribute to the climate mitigation of the envelope, become an integral part of the management of flows - in a context of social distancing as a preventive measure - and a therapeutic tool for patients and operators.
The visual background for the patients, the greenery, contributes to the healing process and marks, with the change of vegetation, the passage of time.
Emergency Hospital 19 responds to an extended sustainability principle: technical, social, energy and environmental. The basic module has been developed to be adaptable according to latitude and context. The envelope has been designed to reduce the incoming thermal energy by up to 50%, thus reducing the energy required by the indoor air conditioning. The double skin, more or less breathable, allows to adapt the building to different climatic conditions, making the most of the resources available on site (sun, wind, vegetation, etc. ...) to contain winter energy losses and control overheating in summer.
The roof is transformed into a "fifth facade", designed to accommodate a photovoltaic or solar field that can guarantee energy self-sufficiency even in the most isolated or disadvantaged geographical situations (off grid).
Wards and intensive therapies have large windows that allow the patient to benefit from natural light and the view of the landscape, without being exposed to the risk of glare or overheating of the room thanks to the presence of blinds and silkscreens outside the glass.
In the Emergency Hospital 19 project, the multicoloured pastel striped wallpaper on the walls of rooms and corridors helps to break the monotony and continuity between rooms, ideally projecting the patient into a carefree en plein air atmosphere and helping him feel less dispersed or oppressed. The floors, which simulate a seamless wooden deck, and the warm light fixtures (3000 k) also help to create a more enveloping atmosphere. These devices are designed to recreate domestic sensations of serenity and well-being, and support the patient's delicate psychophysical balance.