Bending specific canopy and public garden animate the health complex Carcavelos nearby LisbonPortugal, made by local artists Simão Botrelho, Studio-J and Duoma.
The Karkavelos Medical Complex brings together four separate medical services in one building and is the result of a public architectural competition held in 2018.
Its sloping site borders residential buildings and the main road that led Simao Botlelo, Studio-J And Duoma design an orthogonal concrete structure that will act as a sound barrier and privacy buffer for the multi-level central garden.
The garden includes a café, children's play area, covered meeting and outdoor event space, and community gardens for both building users and the general public.
“We used the building briefing as an opportunity to give back to the local community and the city a valuable piece of man-made nature that could inspire the building's users,” the team told Dezeen.
“These [gardens] “This information can be used by clinicians for both leisure and social prescribing, addressing non-medical needs by integrating health services and community resources to promote health and well-being,” the group continued.
“We believe that we have not just designed a building, we have designed a garden for the city.”
The Family Health Department and General Resources Department are located on the ground floor to have close connection to the community garden.
The building's ground floor to the east houses mental health services, while where the site descends, a lower level houses a drug treatment team.
A central hallway connects all of these spaces in a U-shaped layout, with the rooms on either side separated by plasterboard walls, making it easy to make changes in the future.
The rectangular blocks of the Carcavelos health complex contrast with the curved shapes of its roofs, which are supported by cylindrical concrete columns and decorated with thin steel balustrades.
Inside, open concrete walkways lead to bright white treatment areas and stone-clad bathrooms illuminated by circular skylights.
“The building’s rugged exterior contrasts with the greenery of the garden and the vibrant atmosphere inside,” the project team noted.
“There is a certain amount of design freedom from Japan mixed with the modernist tropical Brazilian way of building and a very strict mathematical Swiss approach to metric design of the facade,” the company added.
The Carcavelos Health Complex is crowned by a green roof, which can be admired from the small circular terrace on the top floor of the centre.
Other medical centres recently featured on Dezeen include The colourful foyer of the Can Zariquiey complex in Catalonia And Salzburg Clinic Built from Textured Red Concrete.
Photo taken Francisco Nogueira.