In this month’s arcCA Digest, Payette Principal George Marsh, along with other experts in the industry, explain the relationship between health and the built environment to identify emerging issues, problems, opportunities, circumstances when designing.
Net Zero Hospital
Two goals we are engrossed in are Net Zero architecture and embedded nature, and we think of the two as interrelated. Here in New England, we are designing two hospitals that are targeted to be Net Zero in our climate. Both will utilize geothermal cooling and heating, solar collection, green roofs, storm water management—integrating landscape and building to create a wonderful healing environment. Similarly, two large hospitals in China, Fifth XiangYa Hospital and Hengqin Hospital, are designed to weave the building into the landscape in ways that are specific to the place and that support their high sustainability goals. These may seem like simple ideas, yet it is remarkable how few healthcare projects pursue excellence in these areas.
Read the article.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center recently completed a new inpatient building in the heart of Boston’s Longwood Medical Area. A rich texture and palette of materials adorn the wall along the base of the building. Polished black granite forms the watercourse and seat walls, warm gray granite is used on the large wall panels, and an alternating texture of black granite, green glazed terracotta, and weathered steel is applied to the vertical recesses between the granite wall panels.
This design accentuates key elements in the landscape and introduces an intimate human scale and craftsmanship to the pedestrian realm.
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