The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has unveiled a new medical education building, Roper Hall. Designed by The S/L/A/M Collaborative (SLAM) and Flad Architects, the UNC School of Medicine’s new building intends to train new generations of physicians through dynamic and active modes of learning.
“We studied what medical students need to really succeed in today’s world and reverse-engineered a design that provides the space to prepare future physicians,” Kimberly Robidoux, higher education practice leader, SLAM, said in a statement.
A notable feature of the 172,000-sf facility: It has no lecture halls. Instead, Roper Hall offers 16 seminar rooms and six medium-size classrooms.
Roper Hall also features an active learning theater, which SLAM describes as the building’s crown jewel. The learning theater, which can house up to 240 people, serves the design emphasis on creating spaces for first- and second-year students to meet and work together. The learning theater doubles as an event space and has become the main location for the school’s annual Match Day, when students are paired with their residency programs.
To support the school’s active learning curriculum, SLAM has designed multiple simulation labs and a clinical skills center for inter-professional training. The simulation labs include large operating rooms and patient care bays with video monitoring to track student progress.
Focus group sessions with over 50 students and committees informed the eight-floor building. This engagement led to the creation of spaces such as the medical student commons—a lounge equipped with a kitchenette, ping-pong tables, TV screens, and banquette seating. Based on student feedback, the design team also incorporated a café and a fitness center.
The design draws on UNC’s surrounding landscape and community. On entry, terrazzo flooring contains crushed seashells that evoke North Carolina’s coast. A nod to the state’s many forests, wood treatments accentuate the active learning theater. And on every floor, large-format photography captures the state’s landscapes.
On the Building Team:
Owner: The University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Architect of record, design architect, co-interior architect: Flad Architects
Medical education planner, co-interior design architect: The S/L/A/M Collaborative
MEP and structural engineer: Affiliated Engineers
General contractor: T.A. Loving
Related Stories
| May 16, 2011
USGBC and AIA unveil report for greening K-12 schools
The U.S. Green Building Council and the American Institute of Architects unveiled "Local Leaders in Sustainability: A Special Report from Sundance," which outlines a five-point national action plan that mayors and local leaders can use as a framework to develop and implement green schools initiatives.
| May 10, 2011
Greenest buildings: K-12 and commercial markets
Can you name the nation’s greenest K-12 school? How about the greenest commercial building? If you drew a blank, don’t worry because our friends at EarthTechling have all the information on those two projects. Check out the Hawai’i Preparatory Academy’s Energy Lab on the Big Island and Cascadia Green Building Council’s new Seattle headquarters.
| Apr 12, 2011
College of New Jersey facility will teach teachers how to teach
The College of New Jersey broke ground on its 79,000-sf School of Education building in Ewing, N.J.
| Mar 15, 2011
What Starbucks taught us about redesigning college campuses
Equating education with a cup of coffee might seem like a stretch, but your choice of college, much like your choice of coffee, says something about the ability of a brand to transform your day. When Perkins + Will was offered the chance to help re-think the learning spaces of Miami Dade College, we started by thinking about how our choice of morning coffee has changed over the years, and how we could apply those lessons to education.
| Mar 15, 2011
Passive Strategies for Building Healthy Schools, An AIA/CES Discovery Course
With the downturn in the economy and the crash in residential property values, school districts across the country that depend primarily on property tax revenue are struggling to make ends meet, while fulfilling the demand for classrooms and other facilities.
| Mar 11, 2011
Oregon childhood center designed at child-friendly scale
Design of the Early Childhood Center at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Ore., focused on a achieving a child-friendly scale and providing outdoor learning environments.
| Feb 23, 2011
“School of Tomorrow” student design competition winners selected
The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and Kawneer Company, Inc. announced the winners of the “Schools of Tomorrow” student design competition. The Kawneer-sponsored competition, now in its fifth year, challenged students to learn about building materials, specifically architectural aluminum building products and systems in the design of a modern and creative school for students ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade. Ball State University’s Susan Butts was awarded first place and $2,500 for “Propel Elementary School.”
| Feb 15, 2011
LAUSD commissions innovative prefab prototypes for future building
The LA Unified School District, under the leadership of a new facilities director, reversed course regarding prototypes for its new schools and engaged architects to create compelling kit-of-parts schemes that are largely prefabricated.
| Feb 11, 2011
Four-story library at Salem State will hold half a million—get this—books!
Salem State University in Massachusetts broke ground on a new library and learning center in December. The new four-story library will include instructional labs, group study rooms, and a testing center. The modern, 124,000-sf design by Boston-based Shepley Bulfinch includes space for 500,000 books and study space for up to a thousand students. Sustainable features include geothermal heating and cooling, rainwater harvesting, and low-flow plumbing fixtures.