Usually representing spirits, ancestors or the primordial couple, these figures were placed in shrines and treated with great respect. Through a wide range of style, scale, belief and function the couples depicted share a timeless, serene equality necessary to the continuity of their societies.
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Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital / Sheppard Robson + John Cooper Architecture + GAPP + Ruben Reddy Architects
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- 26 May 2017
- Billy Mwangi
- Health Centres , Hospitals , Sustainability , Brick , Communal Centres ,
From the Architects;
The Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital in Johannesburg is the first purpose built paediatric hospital in South Africa.
The commission for the hospital, provided by the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund was won by John Cooper Architecture with Sheppard Robson, in an international competition. The design is one of four dedicated children’s hospitals on the African continent, creating a much needed facility for children from South Africa and the Greater Southern Africa Development Community.
The Hospital is a national statement of intent and becomes a defining institution for South Africa, providing not only healing and treatment but education and research – a centre for the practice of paediatric medicine in the continent of Africa.
The first purpose built tertiary/Quaternary paediatric hospital in Southern Africa, containing six centres of clinical excellence, it now provides the most advanced medicine, free at the point of delivery, for the sickest children in a child and family-focused facility with an African identity and operates as an academic tertiary care referral facility, providing services in speciality care areas such as cardiothoracic, neuroscience, nephrology, endocrine, reconstructive and general paediatric surgery.
It has been planned as a 200-bed facility, with capacity to grow to 300 beds, and includes a relatively high ratio of intensive/critical care beds along with a significant quantity of family accommodation for those accompanying sick relatives
The client was not experienced in commissioning buildings and we worked closely with clinicians and the board to establish a project structure and formulate the functional content, brief and operational policies before commencing designs. This extensive collaboration gave us the opportunity to integrate several examples of international best practice with the best of the clinical culture of South Africa. JCA led the design team through the briefing and scheme design stages to achieve clinical sign- off.
The building’s simple plan is based on a linear garden through which all public circulation takes place. The design takes advantage of the steep gradient on the site. Ambulatory services all take place at entrance level, with all the inpatient beds located on the level above, nestling under the roofs and skylights, with terraces and roof gardens.
Families and carers have their own accommodation on the uppermost floor. Theaters and critical care beds are set out on the level below the entrance, exploiting the sloping site to allow direct ambulance entrance and another set of gardens. At the center of the design is a secret garden, a visual and spiritual heart for the hospital, where all activity is based. The shallow floor plates allow for much of the building to be naturally lit and ventilated.
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