Nuova struttura ospedaliera “S. Anna”

date: 2013
client: Lombardy Region and “S.Anna” Hospital
object:  “S.Anna” new hospital structure in Como
location: Como
size data:
Total territorial surface 244.090 mq
Building surface 25% (equal to approximately 28,280 sq. m.)
Max. height 20 m
Beds n. 583
project stage: feasibility project

The hospital structure acquires an urban content from both a physical point of view, i.e. being a structure with unusual dimensions and volumes on the inside of a territorial fabric, and from a conceptual point of view, i.e. openly conversing with the context. The opening towards “context” and citizens is created through a careful integration of the building complex on the site, making use of the orography and the exposition, with an elevated permeability of the structure, both in terms of transparency with the extended glass partitions that guarantee wide views and a visual contact with the outside, and in terms of a dialogue with the community by hosting activities that are not common place within the internal structure of a hospital. “Open hospital” means integration with the socio-cultural fabric of the area, open therefore to initiatives and activities of cultural associations, voluntary organisations and civil societies, opening up the structure to multifunctional activities, without denying it the necessary discretion and the varying level of protection and accessibility of the spaces.

The neighbouring external area surrounding the buildings will make up a green space useable by the wards but also open to the public. The humanisation of the hospital structure is to be understood in the widest sense of the term, extending it not only to patients but also to the workers, doctors, nursing staff, and technical and administrative personnel, who are subjected to high levels of psychophysical stress everyday. Among the aspects that contribute to the humanisation of the hospital area, special attention must be paid to the areas of environmental comfort. The areas of the wards, the diagnostic and treatment zones should ensure, by means of correct ergonomic study and the use of materials, furnishings and colour, the maximum level of familiarity, that should also extend to the electro-medical equipment, making it less hostile and “friendlier”, with the idea of lowering the sensation of discomfort and fear that inevitably affects patients in some situations.

Also the service system, fundamental for the correct working of the hospital machinery, should be discreet and should not be a disturbance to the wards. A further aspect connected to the humanisation of the spaces is the introduction of the some typologies that are traditionally missing from hospital architecture, among which the “Street”, the “Square”, the “Library”, and ”Auditorium”, that act as meeting and socialisation areas, other than just being the commercial and entertainment activities as identified in the welcoming area.