Silver Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2024
Daiichi Hospital
- A' Design Award 2024 Silver Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2024
- CLIENT: Daiichi Hospital
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 29,643
- Verification code 3CD5D955C7 · Verify this award
About Daiichi Hospital
Daiichi is a hospital building located in Himeji City, Japan. The seven-story structure replaces an older block and holds one hundred beds. A porous facade is treated as a thin sheet and repeated in several layers, which gives the building depth and softens the heavy image often linked to hospital architecture. The layered corner responds to the angular shape of the site and marks the main entrance. White surfaces are used to suggest cleanliness and to calm patients. A grid of metal beams and pillars supports the building and meets strict earthquake safety rules.
This architectural work emerges from the evolving tradition of contemporary healthcare design, where the imperative to create environments conducive to healing intersects with principles of material honesty, spatial clarity, and considered human experience. The composition demonstrates remarkable sensitivity to the dialogue between building and environment, captured at that liminal moment when natural and artificial light achieve equilibrium. The four projecting vertical fins command particular attention, their monolithic presence suggesting both protective enclosure and aspirational reach, while their edge illumination transforms utilitarian architectural elements into sculptural statements that animate the urban streetscape. The fenestration strategy reveals thoughtful consideration of interior program, with window placements of varying dimensions suggesting the diverse functional requirements of medical facilities, from intimate consultation rooms to larger treatment spaces, each aperture becoming a beacon of warm light against the cooler envelope. The architect appears to engage with the challenge of institutional scale through strategic articulation: the fin elements break the potentially overwhelming mass into comprehensible rhythmic units while the setback ground-level entrance, fully glazed and brilliantly illuminated, creates a welcoming threshold that mediates between public realm and healthcare interior. Material choices suggest an appreciation for surfaces that age gracefully while maintaining the hygienic associations appropriate to medical contexts. The overall effect achieves that delicate balance healthcare architecture seeks: projecting competence and technological capability while simultaneously offering comfort and human warmth. Viewers might contemplate how architectural form can embody institutional values of care, protection, and hope.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The new replacement building for Himeji Daiichi Hospital is built next to the late 1960s block that is planned to be demolished after moving to the new building. The idea behind this project is to bring some modernity and lightness to the old institution and to change the heavy monolithic image of hospital buildings. This is done by creating a porous facade that is treated as a sheet and repeated to create the depth of the building.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Gross Built Area: 2239sqm
W55100mm x D29777mm x H29910 - Tags
- Japan, hospital, white, reception, green, architecture, interior, medical, clinic, reception
- Production Technology
- The 7 stories building is supported by a grid of metallic beams and pillars. Since Japan is prone to earthquakes the building is design with extra safety measure. The facade is covered by cladding panels from KMEW. The interior is built using drywall techniques and was finished with a variety of materials including tiles, vinyl floor, vinyl wall cloth, wooden panels, platina panels, melamine board, and mirrors.
- Design Challenge
- The challenge of this project is to design and build a fully functional 100 beds hospital that responds to the newest Japanese regulations regarding earthquake and fire safety, using a very limited budget and yet produce a space that tends more towards hospitality rather then medical. Finding the middle ground between small luxury, efficiency, cost effectiveness, limited footprint, and extremely regulated spaces.
- Project Duration
- Project start: July 2018.
Construction starts: December 2021.
Project/Construction End: March 2023.
Location:
Himeji City, Japan. - Operation Flow
- The entrance opens to the reception counter followed by to the waiting area that faces a series of consulting and treatment rooms. It also contains medical imaging area and an emergency area also accessible from a dedicated entrance. The second floor is occupied by the dialyzes room, operating area, and dispensing services. The following floors are for the inpatient rooms. The sixth floor houses the rehabilitation room, the kitchen and dining areas, and offices. The seventh floor is technical.
- Research
- The main challenge with this project is to break up with the monolithic block representative of modern hospitals and shift the interior towards a more anxiety free hospitality driven spaces. While aiming to achieve this the design needed to still obey the very strict healthcare functionality of a modern hospital and keep the tight budget under control. The available land area had an irregular shape creating efficiency complications that needed to be overcome.
- Inspiration
- The design was inspired by its site. the shape of the available land area and its angular position toward the main road inspired the repetition of the main facade in several layers as a corner treatment that would be an eye catcher for the people driving along the road but also for the pedestrians walking by. The white color dominance is inspired by the cleanliness, the hygiene, and its psychological effect on the patients.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: photographer ©Nacasa & partners Inc, Daiichi Hospital, 2023.
Image #2: photographer ©Nacasa & partners Inc, Daiichi Hospital, 2023.
Image #3: photographer ©Nacasa & partners Inc, Daiichi Hospital, 2023.
Image #4: photographer ©Nacasa & partners Inc, Daiichi Hospital, 2023.
Image #5: photographer ©Nacasa & partners Inc, Daiichi Hospital, 2023.