KUWAIT CHEST DISEASE HOSPITAL

DESCRIPTIVE DATA

Project No. 4:            Kuwait Chest Disease Hospital
Architecture Firm                                                                 of Record:                Langdon Wilson
Design Firm:             Langdon Wilson
Completion Date:      2009
Role of Nominee:      Principal Designer

This 320 Acute Care Bed Hospital for the Ministry of Health in Kuwait and is currently under construction in Kuwait City. The design approach provides innovative and functional design that is sensitive to the regional and Islamic principles and traditions. It is a hospital that reflects local environmental conditions and incorporates state of the art technology, energy and water conservation, and a hospital that will facilitate extension, flexibility, and expandability by its “unbundled design”. 

The design focuses on the patient needs and provides a healing environment for patient care. This design attitude ranges from visual imagery of the hospital in its appropriate scale and proportion, to its contextual site and climate sensitivity as perceived by the larger Kuwaiti community and from the need for exploiting expansive views of the Gulf form patient rooms to providing contemplative “oasis gardens” immediately accessible to the patient, visitor, and staff  The design gives privacy to inpatient care units by segregating interdepartmental and public circulation form patient care unit circulation.  By the low-rise nature of the building, all patient bed levels are in scale to the ground plane. The inpatient bed units types are horizontally connected to the most appropriate diagnostic and treatment areas (such as surgery beds to surgery and maternity beds to labor and delivery), to minimize time and distance, and yet allow circulation segregation and efficient staff accessibility. 

The curving graceful form of the Inpatient Building orients all the Acute Care Patient Bedrooms to the Gulf and contrasts with the more rectangular Diagnostic and Treatment and Support Buildings in both shape, building materials and exterior fenestration and orientation. Creating meaningful exterior public spaces was paramount in the design intent for both entry areas and more protected, contemplative “oasis gardens” between the building forms, that provide an exterior environment that would be inviting in another wise hostile climate.

AWARDS RECEIVED:        

                   Competition First Prize Award in 2000