Suzhou Science and Tech City Hospital
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Project Narrative
Suzhou (SUE-joe) is a mid-size city renowned for historic gardens, canals, and palaces near Shanghai on China’s east coast. As with many Chinese cities, it is surrounded by rapidly growing development zones welcoming millions of new arrivals from rural areas. Despite the city’s exploding population, Suzhou’s new general hospital delivers a welcoming and easily navigable healthcare facility. Outpatient, inpatient, and emergency entries are deployed along the complex’s eastern flank, offering clear destinations for approaching visitors. Outpatient clinics and treatment facilities are united beneath a canopy roof, spanning between strategically-placed towers on each end. Inpatient towers on the north end are organized for maximum efficiency and proximity to services, with views to verdant parkland past the public health administration tower to the south. Suzhou’s temperate climate, similar to that of the American southeast, presented unique design opportunities to connect to nature through exterior courtyards, walkways, tranquil gardens, and abundant natural light. In the lobby, daylight floods through windows creating lively shadow play across the interior walls throughout the day.