Hospital da Luz – Clínica da Figueira da Foz

The new Hospital da Luz clinic in Figueira da Foz is in the northern part of the city, in a fully established urban area.
The site was previously occupied by a small, disused supermarket and its outdoor car park, comprising 28 spaces, which were to be retained.
The brief specified an imaging and diagnostics unit, an outpatient unit and a clinical analysis unit, linked by a shared reception area and waiting areas on each floor, which together were to total around 2,000 m² of gross floor area.
The approach to the project sought to address simultaneously the organisation of the programme, the image the building projects onto the public space, and its integration into the urban context. Above all, however, it sought to deal as effectively as possible with the car park, to incorporate it into the building’s design and the surrounding outdoor spaces, thereby mitigating its presence.
After studying a range of solutions, we opted for a building set free in the middle of the plot, above the car park.
A parallelepiped ‘detached’ from the ground, supported only at its ends, as if they were feet, beneath which the car park is organised.