The all new hospital in Curacao has recently been awarded with the sustainable LEED Gold award for its green building status.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the most widely used green building rating system in the world and an international symbol of excellence. The certificate is the highest LEED rating given to any hospital in the entire Caribbean (44 million inhabitants) and endorses a medical centre that operates sustainably and provides a healthy place for its patients and staff.
Sustainable
From the very first start of the project sustainability and energy saving were key during the design and construction phase. Overall, the new hospital is almost 30% more energy efficient in comparison to similar (international) reference projects. Key sustainable characteristics include:
- Façades: The facades are oriented and have been designed in such a way to minimize direct sunlight on the windows (and the resulting interior heat load) to a maximum of two hours per day. Aluminium lamella are placed in front of almost all windows, while indoor activities are cleverly organized across the entire floor plan.
- Rain- and condensate water: Both rainwater as well as the large daily amounts of condensate water from air-handling units’ cooling coils is collected in two underground cisterns. In this way around 25.000 liters per day is saved.
- Solar collectors: Multiple sets of solar collector systems have been installed on the roofs in order to provide hot tap water to the new complex.
- Use of daylight: The interior lay-out of the hospital provides staff and patients with maximum direct visual connection between indoor and outdoor spaces. This increases well-being and orientation. Daylight responsive lighting controls assess the amount of natural daylight in a particular space. When natural light is sufficient, artificial lighting can then be reduced to save energy.
- Central Atrium climate: Because of its large size (over 100m long and 15m high), the central atrium cannot be climatized in a sustainable way by use of HVAC installations (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning). Therefore, the façade holds glass louvres that are automatically opened and closes based on temperature and outside weather. Most of the louvres are positioned in the North and East façade, making maximum use of the predominant wind direction on Curacao.
Led by Ballast Nedam, the Curacao Medical Center was designed by EGM architects and OZ with consulants Baumann Consulting, ERKE, BenR, Valstar Simonis and Deerns being part of the team.