EXPANSION OF HOSPITAL RESIDENCIAL DO MAR

The Hospital Residencial do Mar is located a few hundred meters from the Tagus River, in a residential urban area on the outskirts of Lisbon, in a triangular block bounded by a national highway, and north of Expo 98. On the site, there is Portuguese modernist building that housed the old Estação Agronómica Nacional that we partially rehabilitated, and attached a new contrasting wing in the form of an inverted G.

We proposed the demolition of a part of the existing building and rehabilitated the part of greater architectural interest; the idea was to implement in this building the assistance and common areas of the hospital. The structure, distribution, functionality and typology of the new attached wing were designed to respond to the requirements of the program and to the users comfort.

The project was developed in two phases to accommodate the required capacity over time; for that reason, in the second phase the number of rooms and the areas of some rooms were increased, and the use of some spaces was changed. In the first phase, the new building formed an inverted C; in the last phase, a block was added to materialize that inverted G.

The project’s aim was the rehabilitation of the existing building and the creation of a new module that contrasted with it. The layout of the new wing responded to the search for better natural lighting and to take advantage of the visuals towards the new patio on the ground floor. We as well took advantage of the plot’s height, above the level of the national road, to separate the new hospital with an almost natural slope that improved the views towards the river from the hospitalization rooms.

A concrete wall is proposed to enclose the hospital complex, which intuits the interest in the formal contrast of the old Estação Agronómica Nacional building with the contemporary structure that now configures the hospital.

In the basement, the general services were arranged, such as loading and unloading areas, kitchen, pantry, general store, morgue, laundry, changing rooms, pharmacy, and general equipment. On the ground floor are the pedestrian and vehicular accesses. In the renovated building the main lobby, reception and cafeteria were organized; and in the extension block thirty double rooms and one single with balcony and direct access to the garden were placed.

On the first floor, a multipurpose room was located in the renovated building, which was extended in the second construction phase; the occupational therapy rooms built in the first phase became a gym in the second period. On the same floor of the new wing 31 double rooms and a single room were designed. The administrative area occupies the entire space of the renovated building second floor; and in the new building was placed a special unit for Alzheimer patients, with 26 individual rooms.

Also in the second phase, the module added to the new building contains eleven double rooms facing southeast and nine singles facing northwest. At the intersection between both buildings, the vertical circulations were articulated and also support rooms were built, such as a new neuro-stimulation room.

Alcoves were designed along the corridors to distribute the doors in order to create small spaces that favor a better identification of the room entrances by the users. It was fundamental to bring in natural light in all rooms; this is why façades with a 50% glazed surface were created, and slides of wood were arranged so that each user can regulate the light and the solar rays.

Wood, glass and monolayer plaster of diverse colors are the predominant materials in the façade; with them, a cheerful and dynamic combination was created in response to the austerity of the rehabilitated building facades. Correspondingly, the new building sought to be seen as a light structure compared to the heavy impression of the existing building.

The facades were composed of double brick walls with projected polyurethane insulation. Some distinctive areas of the façades were resolved with exposed concrete walls, made in situ, and some areas were finished in mini corrugated metal sheet.