Project Details

  • Construction Date

    2015

  • Location

    Mendrisio, CH 2015

  • Categories:

OBV - HOLY VIRGIN HOSPITAL EXTENSION

Mendrisio, Swiss Confederation, 2015

6th Prize

Name: OBV – Holy Virgin Hospital Extension
Organizer: Municipality of Mendrisio
Project Typology: Healthcare
Location: Mendrisio,CH
Year: 2015
Competition Typology: Open
Stage: 2nd stage
Result: 6th
Firm: Atelier4Architetti
Designers: Aurelio Galfetti
Alex Braggion
Carola Barchi
Luciano Schiavon
Partners: Messi & Associati SA
Contributors: Samantha Minozzi, Alessandra Argenziano, Stefania Berto, Roberta Chiorboli, Sofia Beatrice D’este, Codrin Graur, Giulia Sintini

The need to expand the existing hospital is a unique planning opportunity to bring together in a new public space all the residual areas, green or paved, formed without a precise project, which today separate both the Turconi building and the OBV.
The aim is to create the premises for the formation of a contemporary public space that flows from east and west towards viale Turconi, thought of as the axis of the new campus.
The urban design allows to define the exact location of the new buildings and, more concretely, the way to enlarge the hospital.
A “finite” building like the old hospital can be correctly expanded only with elements that are themselves finite. The theater of architecture, the future addition of first-year laboratories, the temporary library, the Capuchin church are all finite, autonomous constructions that dialogue but do not devalue the existing “mother building”.
For the enlargement of the hospital, the same process is repeated: it is extended preserving the existing hierarchy: the main building maintains its autonomy, the additions control the interstitial spaces and create the new hospital campus that integrates with that of the academy.
The residual designed space, enriched by green islands, qualifies as a fluid, continuous, open space, rich in different connections.