A state-of-the art provincial Mother & Child Center, Gansu City (China)
The ensemble of buildings reads as one medical complex and has the scale of a ‘city block’, but the various centres within the complex each have their own place and identity.
The Gansu Provincial Woman & Child Medical Center is a medical complex specialized in mother and child care in Lanzhou, a city of 4 million inhabitants in the north-western province of Gansu. The area served by the centre stretches from Mongolia in the north to Tibet in the south, and has a population of over 90 million inhabitants.
Top-class facilities for excellent care
The aim of the client is to establish an institute for mother and child care that ranks among the best in China and around the world. Besides offering top-class facilities for excellent care, the client aims to create a hospital with a ‘soul’, a pleasant ‘healing environment’ with character and identity.
Shared platform
The entire complex consists of a 40,000 m2 mother and child centre, a 60,000 m2 children’s hospital, a 95,000 m2 city hospital, and a 75,000 m2 international hospital, with a total of 2,300 beds. These four centres are served by facilities housed in a so-called ‘shared platform’. This centrally located building of 40,000 m2 contains operating rooms, intensive care units, a radiology department, laboratories, staff accommodation, research facilities and logistics facilities.
One medical complex with various centres
The ensemble of buildings reads as one medical complex with the scale of a ‘city block’. The various centres within the complex are given a place and identity of their own. The edges of the complex are defined by low-rise development with largely public functions such as policlinics.
Efficient logistical connections
Placed on top of the low-rise development are 4 towers, mostly containing the nursing departments of the various hospitals. The ‘shared platform’ is positioned centrally to ensure efficient logistical connections. Gardens and squares occupy the open space between the low-rise volumes and are visible from all round the complex. Accessible not only to patients, visitors and hospital staff but also to the people of Lanzhou, they spatially weave the complex into the city.
Dutch Health Architecture
The Gansu Provincial Woman & Child Medical Center is designed by Dutch Health Architects (DHA), a joint venture between EGM architects and Gortemaker Algra Feenstra.