February 2009 Archives

"We are in front of the imperious necessity to accept as an historical fact, the end of verticality as an elevation axis, the end of horizontality as a permanent plan, in the benefit of oblique axis and lean plan which achieve all the needed conditions to create a new urban order, and which also allow to totally reinvent architecture's vocabulary.
This shift should be understood for what it actually is: the third architecture's spatial possibility."

I am going to work on details now. I want to do some slab textures.

 

I am going to try and do a crazy one now and some different moments...

I  chose to quickly develop _02 because I provides the formal language of the intersecting slab. The Slab varies in thickness based on necessity and then can literally disintegrate at the edges allowing for vegetation from the gardens bellow to rise through to the next floor.
This method also allows for the control of light entering the floor bellow. The progressive disintegration also creates a natural barrier from the edge.
In the first image I started to investigate how the grid can be broken to create larger outdoor balconies in the private clinic. The heights of the vertical slabs also vary to to vary depth. This scenario shows the descent from the balcony via a ramp next to what is intended to be a private pool  to  a private garden. ( This is just a graphic sketch - its a bit hard to read).
I know it is a simple grid at the movement  but I think that this type of language makes sense with the idea of the sterility of the hospital slab - also starting points have always been 'basic elements' - Slab, column..ect..grid? It also works with the staking of the different floors to create a moire effect that allows the very generic to be read as extremely complex (in plan only at the moment). I image  steam rising from the genericish grid of the public hospital in the same way is rises from a sewer grid in a city street...? Its a bit dark side but...that can be ok..?
Feed back on if this is the right direction would be super helpful.
I have not frogotten the triptic or the slab plate  - I am really excited about pushing that direction and I have lots of ideas but I need some thing to work with....

I

From the most generic I beam to highly articulated pre cast beams

I will post these along with my more recent entry (bellow) since I cant render the other model.

I can't get any better images than this - sorry! This laptop just can't deal.
This model is exploring different distortions of the slab. These floor are meant to be part of the public hospital - they are more generic in character.
The Slab becomes deeper in the areas where it supports the gardens. In the main hall it is rippled to break the monotony of the large open space. In this case I think it will also help with acoustics.
The second floor is a ward for multiple patients. The third floor is smaller individual patient rooms and treatment facilities. On the second and third floor the slab also comes down to form the walls.

I slit haven't resolved the columns that support the double height area where two buildings intersect.

At the moment the pattern of the slab in plan is made of lines but this could become some thing much more intricate. A pattern that appears and disappears, revealing itself during the winter cycle when the vegetation dies away. This would allow the building to be in a constant state of change - reflecting the cyclical nature of both the history of the site and the program of the hospital.

I have been looking at the height restrictions around the Moskova Bank to determin the average heights of the hospital

I have been working on intersecting an overlaying.
I split the site in the centre between public and private. (I am not a fan of the black background but I my drawings always look invisible on the blog.)
I will try to do a colour coded and labelled one for tomorrow, so that we can discuss programmatic distribution.
I found the the floor distribution from UCL - each floor has a distinct program.
(see bellow)

 17th/18th floors: Engineering plants

16th floor: Gynaecology & Breast

15th floor: Private patients, outpatient and day assessment

14th floor: Cancer inpatients - Oncology/Head & Neck

13th floor: Cancer inpatients - Haematology/Transplant

12th floor: Adolescent inpatients: UCLH was the first Trust to introduce a dedicated adolescent ward for cancer care over 20 years ago, and the evolution in patient care. The new facilities, designed in association with The Teenage Cancer Trust, will consolidate our position at the forefront of adolescent care, with the largest multidiscpinlary adolescent unit in the country, specially furnished and equipped to provide a home from home for any teenager

11th floor: Paediatrics inpatient

10th floor: Medicine/Care of the elderly

9th floor: General surgery/Gastro intestinal

8th floor: Infectious diseases, for patients with tropical/infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS, and patients requiring isolation and other specialised care

7th floor: Urology/Short stay

6th floor: Trauma & orthopaedic/Vascular/Rheumatology

5th floor: Nuclear medicine & HD Radiation.
The Institute of Nuclear Medicine is already an internationally recoginised service and academic unit. With the first PET/CT scanner in the UK, SPET/CT gamma cameras and bone densitometers for NHS and research activity. The Institute will also serve as a training centre for doctors of other specialities seeking training and expertise in areas such as oncology, radiology, cardiology and neuro-psychiatry. The unit is also a key centre for the training of scientists and physicists.

4th floor: Engineering Plant

3rd floor: Critical care facility including High Dependency Unit – the largest in London, with 35 beds, reducing average dependency levels in other wards, directly linked by bridge to the operating theatres.

2nd floor: Ambulatory intervention unit.
Growing technical sophistication means that increasing numbers of interventions are performed without the need for extended in-patient stays. This new unit will boast 38 rooms with the latest in image-guided diagnostic equipment.

1st floor: Acute intake/Admissions unit.
Currently located on three wards in two separate buildings, our new Acute Admissions Unit will be located directly above A&E, enabling continuity of treatment between the two.

Ground floor: Accident and Emergency (including fracture clinic)
Our new A&E facilities anticipate a 10% increase on current figures (rising to 70,000 – 80,000) and will include two paediatric bays, a cot bay, and fracture clinic.

Basement 1: Diagnostic Imaging and Physiotherapy including a hydrotherapy pool and two gyms.

Basement 2/3: Radiotherapy - four high energy linear accelerators, two low energy linear accelerators, a CT simulator, a regular simulator, a brachytherapy theatre, a DXR room.


Podium Block

4th floor: Engineering plant/Central sterile services

3rd floor: 12 operating theatres and 18 recovery beds

2nd floor: Ambulatory intervention unit (including Gastro intestinal), stretching across to include the Tower, containing seven endoscopy suites, 15 recovery beds, six first stage recovery beds, interventional CT, ECRP, laser bronchoscope.

 1st floor: General Outpatients, with Consultant/examination/teaching rooms and treatment rooms.

 Ground floor: From the main entrance, access to dining facilities, dispensary, shop, multi-faith place of worship, friends of the hospital, discharge lounge, PALS, Patient affairs.

Basement 1: Mortuary and Pharmacy with viewing & teaching gallery and two vigil rooms.

Basement 2: Receiving station for pathology samples, linked by wide-bore pneumatic tube to every floor in the hospital