for healthcare buildings, louis sullivan's old rule still
applies: “form follows function”. and because hospitals overflow with
functions, there are evidently hardly any possibilities for variation in form.
by contrast, the tiantan hospital has been created with the very poetic motto
of “five feelings and six senses”. it is one of the leading international
neurology hospitals – and boasts a facade with a regional reference.
healthcare buildings are rarely used as models for
particularly spectacular architecture. construction dimensions to be tackled
are too large, planning times are too long, the purely functional demands are
too high, and individual wards are converted too frequently. and due to the
footprint of the buildings, it is virtually impossible to integrate modern
hospitals in historical city structures. as a result, diagnoses and treatments
are almost only carried out on the outskirts of cities. this is no different in
china compared to europe, and the new tiantan hospital in beijing is a prime example.
architectural competition
beijing's city centre is also in urgent need of relief to
avoid its collapse. and the enormous tiantan park, protected as a unesco world
heritage site, does not tolerate competing buildings in its immediate vicinity.
however, this is exactly what would have happened if the city administration
had expanded the “beijing tiantan hospital”, founded there in 1956, with the
required capacities on site. in 2010 it was therefore decided to move the
hospital to the fengtai district, an area that was still dominated by
traditional hutong architecture in the mid-1980's – today it has several
million inhabitants. in the run-up to this major project, the implementation of
the task was also considered with german participation but in the end the
building was completed by the chinese office biad – beijing institute of
architectural design.
modern facade
the architects handled this enormous task by dividing the
total required volume into functional units and structurally subdividing it
into several building structures – all in all, in its large form, similar to an
aircraft carrier. the most striking design is clearly the main building of the
complex. it has been given a lavish, state-of-the-art facade whose ornamental
wickerwork has been the latest fashion in international architecture since
herzog & de meuron completed the national stadium in beijing in 2008. in
the case of the tiantan hospital, however, the wickerwork is reduced to a white
net on the outermost layer of the facade skin, serving at most as a reflection
of the local stadium. the other ward buildings lined up behind them do not
feature this creative element.
poetic motto
instead, the entire complex was designed based on the very
poetic motto of “five feelings and six senses”. because patients, visitors and
employees should experience with all their senses that respect, authority,
trust, safety and comfort prevail in this hospital. this goal is achieved
through the colour and feel of the selected surfaces, careful planning of
acoustics, lighting technology and ventilation. in total, the facility
accommodates 352,000 square meters of various specialist clinics,
outpatient departments, waiting areas, technical buildings, administrative
offices and 1650 hospital beds. according to tiantan, this makes it one of the
three leading neurology hospitals in the world. however, national health
insurance patients from germany might consider the bed halls typical for the
tiantan hospital somewhat unusual, making them think fondly of the two-bed
rooms in wards at home. while hospital construction has become increasingly
globalised, these types of national differences still remain.
location: fengtai, beijing, cn
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