In recent years, many studies have revealed the increasing rate of hospital obsolescence. This fact is a reflection of the fast pace at which contemporary society and medicine evolve. Therefore, each part of the hospital should be designed to adapt to fast changes without having a big impact on the daily routine of patients and medical staff. The Open Building project joins flexibility and quality of care, exploiting the homonym approach developed by Prof. S. Kendall on a smaller scale and empowering the hospital to constantly update its services.
The resulting product is a prefabricated inpatient room transportable in three parts and able to accommodate a variety of fit out changes in both technology and function, in the short as well as in the long term. In fact, on the one hand the interior space is defined by many series of wall panels with different foldable furniture and integrated functions. Colors, lights and materials are part of the customizable pallet of items that contribute to enhance the healing standards inside the room, ranging from a basic to a premium endowment. On the other hand, the tripartition of the modular room provides the possibility of removing it from the Primary structure and repurpose or dismantle the building at its end-of-life.
This technical solution has been studied addressing six main categories of interest by which the aforementioned concepts may be applied, from healing environment and layout considerations to materials and soft qualities. The team, after the concept development phase, performed a structural assessment and characterization as well as a costs appraisal to better evaluate the feasibility of the project.
Principal academic Tutor
Stefano Capolongo, Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
Academic Tutors
Fiammetta Costa, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano
Gabriella Peretti, Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino
Riccardo Pollo, Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino
Francesco Scullica, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano
Maddalena Buffoli, Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
Emilio Faroldi, Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
Maria Pilar Vettori, Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
External institutions
CNETO & Fondazione CERBA, Italy
SItI, Italy
BTC srl, Italy
GALA spa, Italy
External tutors
Luigi Colombo, GALA spa
Maurizio Mauri, CNETO & Fondazione CERBA
Werner Rainer, BTC srl
Carlo Signorelli, SItI & Università degli Studi di Parma
Team members
Tarek Afifi Afifi, Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology, Politecnico di Milano
Khadijah Al Khuwaitem, Product Service System Design, Politecnico di Milano
Mirco Alberini [Team controller and Communication coordinator], Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology, Politecnico di Milano
Andrea Brambilla, Architecture, Politecnico di Milano
Alice Franca, Building Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
Mattia Palumbo, Sustainable Architecture, Politecnico di Torino