Fosters completes one of biggest hospitals in US

Foster & Partners has completed one of the largest hospitals in the US.

这座17层108米高的建筑位于西费城的宾夕法尼亚大学医院，连接了学术和医学校区，并创建了一个新的广场和花园。

The $1.6bn and 140,000sq m facility is the largest capital project in the university’s history, the largest hospital project in the Philadelphia region, and one of the largest hospitals in the United States.

Its proximity to research laboratories and specialised treatment facilities is intended to enable collaboration and patient-focused study.

诺曼·福斯特说，它的设计“完全重新定义了医疗保健的未来”。

It contains 504 private patient rooms and 47 operating rooms, providing in-patient care for cardiology and cardiac surgery, medical and surgical oncology, neurology and neurosurgery and transplant surgery. It is also home to a two-storey emergency department.

A huge operation to move all the patients from the previous facility was years in the planning and involved staff and hundreds of volunteers.

The building’s curved facade is meant to reference the rotunda of the adjacent University of Pennsylvania Museum which it dwarfs, while the colour and form are taken from the historic campus architecture.

Chris West, a partner at Foster & Partners, said: “The Pavilion knits the medical campus with the overall university through its materiality and urban planning. Its form is singular and sculptural, creating a recognisable new marker on the skyline of the Penn campus.

“At ground level, spaces flow from the street into the building, creating an inviting experience for pedestrians and providing a welcome contrast to the dense development of hospital buildings that surround the area.”

Human experience was key to the design, he said, with natural light and views prioritised, space for relatives to stay and controls that allow patients to customise their experience of rooms.

West said the pandemic had emphasised the need for hospitals to be able to adapt quickly and the Pavilion’s 72-bed floors could be broken down into smaller units, while the 504 in-patient rooms could be easily used for multiple purposes, from medical-surgical to intensive care.

房间包括一个互动的下墙，集成了娱乐、房间控制、通信和医疗记录信息。

It was awarded LEED Gold and Fosters said it was predicted to save more than 14% in annual energy costs compared to a code-compliant hospital.

HDR was the specialist healthcare architect. The project was carried out by the integrated PennFirst team which also featured BR&A, LF Driscoll, Balfour Beatty and Penn Medicine.

Plans, sections and detail drawings courtesy of Foster & Partners: