Saif Bader Al Qubaisi, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Health Services (SEHA), has unveiled plans for the new three-million-square-foot, 838-bed Sheikh Khalifa Medical City. The new complex, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) in a joint venture with ICME and Tilke, will replace the existing Sheikh Khalifa Medical City and provide expanded medical, pediatric, and trauma care for the residents of Abu Dhabi.
With construction scheduled to start in 2013, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City will combine a general hospital with a level-one trauma center and women’s and pediatric hospitals. Given the massive scale of this project, creating a hospitable sense of character and overall unity for the entire facility – while conveying a sense of identity for each individual hospital – is one of the primary design challenges.
Envisioned as a “city within a city,” the design endeavors to create a new paradigm for a medical center, one that is more like a bustling campus, with vibrant public spaces and a sense of community. Informed by historical regional precedents, the design seeks to strike a balance as a state-of-the-art vision rooted in local heritage. The design responds to, and is respectful of, the unique culture of the UAE and its demanding desert climate.
The primary architectural challenge of the project was to balance the client’s desire to create distinct identities for each of the three hospitals, while maintaining an overall unified expression for the medical city. This was achieved by developing a series of unifying and differentiating components. The medical city’s heavy stone plinth – a reference to the ancient architecture of the region – serves as a common pedestrian-scaled expression, within which the most intense medical functions will be found along with shared amenity spaces and light-filled courtyards. The roof of the plinth is home to a network of gardens that also serves to unify the bed towers that rise above. The architecture of the bed towers communicates the identity of each hospital within a common vocabulary. The exterior sun screens, which characterize the bed tower facades, will vary from the simple rhythm of the general hospital to playful colors and patterns of the children’s hospital to the intricate mashrabiya-inspired geometries of the women’s hospital.
SOM created a centralized, orthogonal plan that establishes a clearly defined sense of place. The facility’s base – a two-story plinth – houses a comprehensive array of medical functions, shared among the three hospitals. The ground floor will hold the adult and pediatric emergency departments, the women´s urgent care center, and all outpatient departments. At the heart of this floor, the diagnostic and treatment center serves all departments in the complex. The second floor houses inpatient and day surgery, intensive care units and related functions. On the main garden level above, the LDR, NICU and C-section ORs are located along with rehab and infusion. Rising above this shared plinth, the nursing areas give identity to the individual hospitals and address the specific needs of each patient population. Below grade, an extensive network of spaces is vertically integrated to support the medical functions above. Staff and visitor parking are located in a sub-cellar.
Embedded in the plinth and at the heart of the medical campus is a vibrant “town center” comprised of lobbies cafes, retail and education spaces. This lively and interactive multi-level space connects to a network of open spaces above the plinth. Located at the convergence of the two entry drives that connect the campus to the city, this town center perhaps best exemplifies how this project re-visions the building type and serves to define and distinguish this medical campus as a true center within the urban fabric.
The design of the medical city is based on the belief that patients are guests and everything about the facility supports that notion of hospitality. The patient and visitor experience is carefully controlled to minimize exposure to the back-of-house components of the facility. Lobbies and other public spaces convey a sense of serenity through spaciousness, natural materials and diffused natural light, while courtyards and terraces engage building interiors with the outdoors.
Like the exterior architecture, which expresses distinct identities developed from a common language, the interiors will be unified yet uniquely branded. The shared public spaces within the plinth will serve as connective tissue, while the lobbies and bed tower interiors of General, Women’s and Pediatric hospitals will express their own similar yet distinct identities. As a whole, the interiors will be comfortable, tranquil and reassuring – creating a sense of calm for patients while instilling confidence that they are within the confines of a world-class health care institution.
From the landscaped entry drives to the main garden level and the light-filled courtyards that perforate the plinth, the medical city’s gardens will create a calm and healing environment. The diverse network of open spaces is considered essential in establishing a tranquil atmosphere and in crafting the campus-like environment that will help to distinguish this medical campus.
The green space strategy begins with the two tree-lined entry boulevards which transition into a grand garden oasis at the center of medical city. This shaded garden, on the roof of the building’s plinth, is accessed from below by gracious interior and exterior stairs and activated by adjacent cafes, conference areas, and family waiting areas. Within the plinth, itself, a series of courtyards serves to bring light and nature into these large floorplates, thereby mitigating the sense of distance, assisting in way-finding and creating a more tranquil atmosphere in this medically intense setting. Above the plinth, the bed towers will be woven with a series of sunlit terraces, hanging gardens and adjacent family lounges.
The medical city will utilize state-of-art, high-efficiency systems as well as age-old regional concepts to mitigate the extreme desert climate of Abu Dhabi. From roof-top solar collectors to the simple fabric scrims that will shade the main garden level, a comprehensive climate strategy is designed to achieve a certified sustainability rating within the local Estidama guidelines (Abu Dhabi’s equivalent of LEED). The medical city will embrace the future sustainable growth by incorporating systems that harness, amplify and support the natural environment.
SOM’s Health + Science practice combines design excellence and technical expertise while promoting sustainable solutions and enhancing the human experience. Notable healthcare projects include the Northshore LIJ Katz Women’s Hospital in New Hyde Park, New York; the 1.8-million square foot Denver VA Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado; the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Master Plan in Cincinnati, Ohio; and the LEED silver-certified Memorial Sloan-Kettering Zuckerman Research Building in New York, New York. BD+C
Related Stories
Construction Costs | Apr 18, 2024
New download: BD+C's April 2024 Market Intelligence Report
Building Design+Construction's monthly Market Intelligence Report offers a snapshot of the health of the U.S. building construction industry, including the commercial, multifamily, institutional, and industrial building sectors. This report tracks the latest metrics related to construction spending, demand for design services, contractor backlogs, and material price trends.
MFPRO+ New Projects | Apr 16, 2024
Marvel-designed Gowanus Green will offer 955 affordable rental units in Brooklyn
The community consists of approximately 955 units of 100% affordable housing, 28,000 sf of neighborhood service retail and community space, a site for a new public school, and a new 1.5-acre public park.
Construction Costs | Apr 16, 2024
How the new prevailing wage calculation will impact construction labor costs
Looking ahead to 2024 and beyond, two pivotal changes in federal construction labor dynamics are likely to exacerbate increasing construction labor costs, according to Gordian's Samuel Giffin.
Healthcare Facilities | Apr 16, 2024
Mexico’s ‘premier private academic health center’ under design
The design and construction contract for what is envisioned to be “the premier private academic health center in Mexico and Latin America” was recently awarded to The Beck Group. The TecSalud Health Sciences Campus will be located at Tec De Monterrey’s flagship healthcare facility, Zambrano Hellion Hospital, in Monterrey, Mexico.
Market Data | Apr 16, 2024
The average U.S. contractor has 8.2 months worth of construction work in the pipeline, as of March 2024
Associated Builders and Contractors reported today that its Construction Backlog Indicator increased to 8.2 months in March from 8.1 months in February, according to an ABC member survey conducted March 20 to April 3. The reading is down 0.5 months from March 2023.
Laboratories | Apr 15, 2024
HGA unveils plans to transform an abandoned rock quarry into a new research and innovation campus
In the coastal town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., an abandoned rock quarry will be transformed into a new research and innovation campus designed by HGA. The campus will reuse and upcycle the granite left onsite. The project for Cell Signaling Technology (CST), a life sciences technology company, will turn an environmentally depleted site into a net-zero laboratory campus, with building electrification and onsite renewables.
Codes and Standards | Apr 12, 2024
ICC eliminates building electrification provisions from 2024 update
The International Code Council stripped out provisions from the 2024 update to the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) that would have included beefed up circuitry for hooking up electric appliances and car chargers.
Urban Planning | Apr 12, 2024
Popular Denver e-bike voucher program aids carbon reduction goals
Denver’s e-bike voucher program that helps citizens pay for e-bikes, a component of the city’s carbon reduction plan, has proven extremely popular with residents. Earlier this year, Denver’s effort to get residents to swap some motor vehicle trips for bike trips ran out of vouchers in less than 10 minutes after the program opened to online applications.
Laboratories | Apr 12, 2024
Life science construction completions will peak this year, then drop off substantially
There will be a record amount of construction completions in the U.S. life science market in 2024, followed by a dramatic drop in 2025, according to CBRE. In 2024, 21.3 million sf of life science space will be completed in the 13 largest U.S. markets. That’s up from 13.9 million sf last year and 5.6 million sf in 2022.
Multifamily Housing | Apr 12, 2024
Habitat starts leasing Cassidy on Canal, a new luxury rental high-rise in Chicago
New 33-story Class A rental tower, designed by SCB, will offer 343 rental units.