CASE STUDY

Local

Baler Hospital, Baler Philippines by Carlos Arnaiz Architects: CAZA

Architectural Analysis:

Baler Hospital—located in a rural area of the Philippines with poor access to

comprehensive health services—combines a general hospital and a trauma center into a single
facility that serves regional needs and fortifies emergency response capabilities. The hospital’s
perimeter portico acts as an iconic edge that allows the different interior functions to be legible
from the exterior. It features stone cladding, verdant courtyards, and light-filled interior spaces.

For the project, CAZA developed a specialized 9-meter by a 9-meter structural grid that
supports a range of programs and specialized room layouts, enabling the hospital to adapt as new
needs emerge. The structural grid efficiently accommodates the exacting spatial requirements of
both the hospital and trauma center programs. The grid is interspersed with garden courtyards that
anchor the hospital’s various departments, maximizing natural lighting and connecting staff and
patients with the landscape. A central spine provides efficient circulation between each of the
departments.

Baler Hospital Floor Plan

Summary:
The architecture, space, and program are planned around a nine-by-nine-meter grid
that accommodates a three-by-three-meter room module, providing the flexibility to form a
variety of different arrangements for patient and examination rooms. Central spine will also
help efficiently circulate staff and medical supplies from the trauma centre to the general
hospital.
 Memphis Mission Hospital, Victoria City by by Carlos Arnaiz Architects: CAZA
Architectural Analysis:
The Memphis Mission Hospital is the first ground-up charity mission hospital in the
Philippines. With a project of this scale and importance, CAZA saw an opportunity to both
improve access to health services in the region and introduce public programs that strengthen
the community as a whole. Designed for Memphis Mission of Mercy, a charity focused on
serving impoverished communities with little or no access to healthcare, the hospital will be a
regional hub for humanitarian efforts and emergency medical response. To maximize impact,
CAZA based the design on analyses of the challenges facing healthcare delivery in the
Philippines, the types of treatments in most dire need, and the logistical hurdles of providing
emergency services in a poorly connected region of more than 2.5 million people.
The hospital includes state-of-the-art facilities for treatment, staff residences, and
community spaces like a library, artist studio, and chapel. These programs are arrayed across
four interconnected volumes in a distinct semi-open arrangement. This breaks down the
hospital—often an imposing and monolithic building type—into a welcoming collection of
smaller structures that feel like a neighborhood. Each of the buildings offers sweeping vistas
over gardens from every window, making for an inviting and comfortable interior experience.
Monumental steps lead to the operating rooms contained in a simple single-pitch structure
clad in natural stone and bounded by a vegetable garden to the north.
 After identifying the demand for healthcare services in the region, CAZA developed a
comprehensive program that responds directly to local needs. The hospital’s functions are
split across four zones. Routine care and staff housing are arrayed near the main entrance,
while surgical and inpatient services occupy two volumes further back from the public access
road.
The design also includes community facilities that establish the hospital as a regional
hub, enhancing public visibility and access to the healthcare and emergency services it
provides. Upon arrival at the hospital, a large curved roof welcomes visitors to an open-air
plaza. Entering, visitors find a library, a health-focused restaurant, consultation rooms, and a
registration area—positioning the hospital as a resource for both patients and community
members. Two public spaces at the eastern edge further integrate the building into
community life: the chapel and artist studio.

Sagip-Kanlungan of Binmaley, Pangasinan by

John Ryan Santos+Partners
Architectural Analysis:
 Compact and Simple
Sagip-Kanlungan has been designed to be a hospital that is compact yet has the service
capability of a tertiary hospital. The compact concept was derived from the idea of the Bento
Box which provides a complete set of courses for a meal in just the right serving quantities.
The design does the same in providing the complete but essential components of a full
hospital in a compact package of 2-storeys and a GFA of less than 4,000 sqm.
 Disaster Resilient
Sagip-Kanlungan is designed as a 2-storey building — earthquake-resistant structure. It is
also equipped with a SHELTER MODE which covers windows and other vulnerable
openings with metal shutters to serve as shield from extreme winds and debris during
typhoon landfall. The hospital is also equipped with redundant backup generators placed on
top of the reinforced ramp structure which provides it with maximum protection against
damage during disasters.
 Decentralized Hospital Network
Sagip-Kanlungan is intended to be the model component of what will eventually be a
network of compact hospitals distributed throughout different rural municipalities that will be
able to deliver healthcare services even if some of them are damaged during disaster
situations. This decentralized hospital network is based on the resilience concept of the World
Wide Web.
 Economical to Build
Because of its small size and scale with lean design features, the Sagip-Kanlungan
hospital building will be constructed at a cost of less than USD 3 million only. This makes it
affordable for even small local government units in the Philippines.
 Option for Community Investment
Using the private cooperative scheme, local residents of a community will have the option
to invest in even small amounts in their local Sagip-Kanlungan. This will create a greater
sense of participation in the local community by allowing residents to actually become
invested in their local hospital.
 Shelter Mode
Typhoons are a yearly occurrence in the Philippines. During typhoons, Sagip-Kanlungan
can go into Shelter Mode wherein the building is able to shield windows and other vulnerable
openings with metal shutters protecting them from high winds and flying debris. The ramp
structure has been designed with as an independent bunker-like structure. Support building
systems are placed at the top of the ramp structure to protect them from flood damage. The
support systems housed by the ramp structure are (1) Backup Generators (2) Water Filtration
Plant (3) Battery Farm for the solar panels (4) Satellite-based communications transmitter.
Foreign

Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architects

Architectural Analysis:
 MAAJ Architects placed a cross-shaped courtyard for growing medicinal plants at the
heart of a timber-framed health center in the French town of Taverne. Because of the busy
road next door MAAJ Architects, decided to turn the building inwards. The plan of the
Taverny Medical Centre draws on the ancient cloister typology common in monasteries.
 The cross-shaped central courtyard is wrapped by the center’s main circulation area.
The central patio offers several advantages such as natural lighting for the whole building. It
also serves as an open extension of the waiting rooms and acts as an intimate and sensory
place where medicinal plants are grown, a reminder of the health and curative purpose of the
center. Waiting areas are nestled into each corner protruding into the courtyard, and staircases
positioned along its north and south edges. Treatment rooms are placed around the perimeter.
Its exterior walls are infilled with wooden sheets, with only small windows to shut out noise
and views from the road. A glazed section of the exterior envelope marks the center’s
entrance, which is approached via a small landscaped garden that helps to create a buffer
between it and the road. Interiors are pale and calm, with exposed timber between the
glazing, white ceilings and white balustrades of thin steel.
Grey-brick hospital in the Chinese Village of Angdong by Architects John Lin and
Joshua Bolchover
Archittectural Analysis:

The facility replaces an existing hospital in Hunan Province. It was designed to

address the lack of basic amenities provided by its predecessor and to provide a template for
other rural hospitals in China. Key to the design was the architects' desire to create a more
open and accessible feel than is typical of most institutional buildings in China. This was
achieved by creating angled gaps in the facades, which permit views of a central courtyard
that is visible from the adjacent road and open to the public.
One of the main issues with the existing hospital was the lack of lifts to transport
patients to the upper storeys, which meant relatives had to carry them up several flights of
stairs. The architects addressed this problem by constructing a shallow ramp that ascends
from the ground floor where the reception, pharmacy, clinic and injection room are located,
to reach wards on the upper floors. The new hospital was constructed alongside the existing
building, which continued to be used throughout the process. It was eventually removed and
replaced by the ramp and courtyard.
 The building's facades are clad with a recycled grey brick that adds a layer of texture
between the smooth concrete floor slabs. A ramp continues onto the building's roof, where
two sets of steps culminate in a viewing platform that occupies one corner of the space.
Internal surfaces lining the sloping passageways feature custom-made blocks with round
openings that overlook the courtyard. The blocks were produced using a flexible latex mold
that enables apertures of different depths and angles to be inset or extruded from the surfaces.

EKH Children's Hospital in Thailand by Design studio Integrated Field

Architectural Analysis:

Integrated Field wanted the young visitors to the medical facility to be put at ease in what can
be a scary and unfamiliar place. The designers put fun elements, such as clouds above an
indoor swimming pool and soft play areas in the waiting rooms, to help distract children who
could be nervous or feeling unwell. An indoor swimming pool adds to the fun, with arched
windows that form circular reflections in the water and white clouds decorating the walls
against a sky-blue backdrop.
In the pharmacy, the play area is designed so that parents can easily keep an eye on their charges
when they're waiting at the counter. The rooms are themed around animals such as rabbits

Arches above doorways and alcoves and rounded seating areas were all designed with a
child's perspective in mind, and these architectural elements were scaled to their height.
Rooms are painted in soft pastel tones, including pink, blue and yellow. Ceiling decorations
double as nightlights. Rooms for overnight stays are given animal themes to make them more
appealing – Whale, Turtle, Lion and Rabbit Constellation. The animal's outline is picked out
on the ceiling so that it is visible during the day. At night, soft lightbulbs and glow in the dark
strips pick out a constellation of stars that acts as a comforting nightlight. Arches feature in
the hospital's bathrooms. Lighting in all of the hospital rooms and corridors is also designed
to be soft, rather than the harsh fluorescent lights usually found in hospital settings. In the
hospital bathrooms, the girls' toilets are tiled pink and the boys' yellow. Sinks and urinals are
set into arched alcoves, with half of the facilities placed at a child's height for easy access.
The facade is also decorated with animals. On the exterior facade, pastel-colored metal
screens have perforations that form
the shape of animals.