Designing Hospitals in China. An American Architect's Experience
David A Rhodes, FAIA
Vice President,
TRO Jung|Brannen,
Boston, USA
(Click to download full paper)
Our firm and I personally have been planning and designing hospitals in China for the past 16 years beginning in Shanghai in May 1993 before there were any elevated motorways, few privately owned automobiles, and no private practice of architecture.
We committed to our first client there that we would not attempt to transplant a US design to China but would work hard to learn about the Chinese culture, the healthcare system, existing facilities and then apply what we learn together with the processes and methods used by us in the US to create new healthcare environments for the future in China. Since that time we have designed 19 hospitals, totaling 1,900,000 square meters and 14,000 beds, ranging in size from 200 to 2,000 beds.
This only includes work for which we had a contract and does not include design competitions that we did not win. In 16 years there have been huge changes in China including changes in healthcare and facility design, and our design approach has continued to evolve to respond to the changes and to lead improvements in hospital design.
This presentation will describe our experiences during these 16 years by using selected projects designed by our firm. Each project has been unique and has its own story. It will describe the nature of each project, its unique mission, site and other circumstances; how we were selected to design the project (about
|