Seixal Hospital

The future hospital unit is located in Seixal, a city on the southern border of Metropolitan Lisbon. A 10-hectare plot in the middle of a large pine forest intersected by the river. Countryside as opposed to the city. An opportunity to “use” a tranquil landscape that conveys a great sense of calm, in the search for a new paradigm and a new approach to hospital typologies.
An approach sustained by the growing know-how regarding hospital structures, where it has become clear that more humanising environments not only improve medical results, but may also reduce the cost of providing health care since, if users recover more easily, they may go home earlier, thereby requiring less access to clinical services, which will naturally reduce hospital costs.
The building has a clear geometry and an easily recognisable identity. It is based on a large platform that integrates with the terrain’s topography on different levels, through roofs, patios and gardens, giving as much precedence to natural lighting as to natural ventilation, bringing “nature” into the building.
This same platform also sustains other volumes, namely a parallelepiped body that defines the building’s main facade.
The plan’s organisation is structured by a main circulation corridor, the “street”, which spans the building from North to South in order to enable easy orientation for users and direct access to all of the hospital’s services.