Columbia Asia Cheras Hospital

The brief asked for a hospital that does not look like a typical hospital. It should exude confidence in users as a place of science and precision in healthcare facilities. Unlike most of the conventional local hospitals that try to create vernacular or tropical architectural language, this hospital makes no attempt to follow the old paradigm hospital design in the region. It uses curtain wall to maximize natural daylight. Visually pleasing in proportion, the cladding uses was a bright silver composite aluminum panels and blue tinted glass to give a modern look with a clean sleek image. This functional high-tech appearance aims to impart a sense of confidence in the healing technology....

The interior design of the hospital, on the other hand, takes on a softer approach whilst maintaining a homely feel. Again, the aesthetics are achieved by the appropriate use of intricate detailing in the joinery works. Natural lighting is therapeutic and here it is abundant in the wards as well as the common areas in the building.

The design took the shape of an efficient rectangular shape, where generally the first floor is for the patient care. All the patient rooms are placed here along the perimeter with external windows for filtered daylight, and possible natural ventilation in case of power failure. Ground floor is dedicated to diagnostic, treatment and administrative functions. All supporting services and back of house functions occupy the only basement level. All the mechanical plants and water tanks are planned to centralize entirely on the covered roof level, which forms the mass necessarily for the required façade proportion consideration. This enclosed roof level becomes an interstitial space insulating the habitable floor below, as such reducing vertical heat load, which is predominant in tropical climate. By so doing, all habitable floors are also free of mechanical rooms, therefore reducing heat, noise and contamination risk.

A health facility with 82 beds, a full range of primary and secondary services, including inpatient and outpatient care, a 24-hour emergency room, day surgery and physiotherapy, three modern operating theatres, medical laboratory, an endoscopic unit with the support of ambulatory services and computerised operating systems.

* Project was partly managed by FDCV Group.