NORD Architects: Healing Architecture
NORD [Northern Office for Research and Design] Architects have recently been named the winners of a competition to design a new healthcare center for cancer patients in Copenhagen. Run in collaboration with the Danish Cancer Society, the project was inspired by “Maggie’s Centre” in Great Britain – and will function as an independent institution that provides cancer patients and their families with counseling and rehabilitation.
[note: this image was cropped from the preceding image, to show more detail]
Founded on the principles of ‘healing architecture’, the center has been specifically designed so as not to resemble a hospital / typical health institution – instead using massing elements suggesting the form of a house [or series or houses]. Conceptually this is intended to both make visitors/users feel more at ease, while also creating an iconic structure that will be recognizable within the community.
“This is a very meaningful assignment to us and we have given a proposal that expresses and defines itself as a new typology between a house and an institution.”
~ Johannes Pedersen and Morten Rask Gregersen, partners at NORD
This saw-toothed gabled roofline runs around the perimeter of the center, forming a central courtyard which can be accessed from a number of locations – creating a public, interior garden area that connects the interior spaces of the project [there’s even a climbing wall, seen in the image below]. A series of balconies open off of this central space, further connecting the building with its site and surrounding neighborhood.
[note: this image was cropped from the preceding image, to show more detail]
And this is yet another example of the current popularity / trend of the iconic gabled roof structure – this time applied to a building that contains no housing at all. So far I’m still into it – but maybe that’s because I’ve yet to come across a project that completely fails in its use of the gables. We’ll see. I’m a fan of this project, regardless – based on the limited information I have [just these images and a few paragraphs of text] I think the project looks as if it could be pretty dope – time will tell.
And is it just me, or is this slightly reminiscent of BIG’s Tallinn’s New City Hall project? Just a little bit…
::all images, info + quotes courtesy of NORD Architects/MIR::
Posted: October 14th, 2009
at 11:38am by orangemenace
Tagged with new gable, healthcare, Danish
Categories: architecture,featured ninjas
Comments: 2 comments