MedVie - Health centres

The Brazilian people generally have a perception of medical buildings as being cold spaces with negative connotations. Also, because they are always weakened by their physical or mental situation when they go to these places, the experience in these spaces becomes not pleasant. MedVie Medical Center, located in the city of Caxias do Sul, in the extreme South of Brazil, seeks to change this perception, humanizing a complex and technologically advanced building. In order to provide a welcoming environment for both patients and healthcare professionals, we introduce an attractive, accessible and supportive concept, creating a positive space, capable of acting as a center of social activity, not just a medical center.
The project is intended to be an open space for the community, where the first element to be considered was the exterior of the building and its materiality, since it is the first point of connection between the patient, the medical center and the environment. Instead of treating the overall volume as a mere container of functions, a volumetric proposal was developed with two wings that house the medical offices and open to the corner and to the public space through a large void on the axis of the building. This glazed volume is on a more solid and closed base, which eventually invites people to access the building through a subtraction on the volume on the corner, and a large slanted slab that suggests to the visitor what they will find inside.
The entire complex is arranged along a central axis diagonally to the corner. This axis, in addition to organizing the spaces, also directs people to the interior of the building and its large central lobby, where shops, cafes, clinics and day-hospital are integrated into the ample space bathed by natural light. Such pleasant space ends up "oxygenating" the user experience.
The stone cladded facade provides the necessary protection for the severe climate of Brazil, ensuring a highly sustainable performance with low maintenance.
The specialized rehabilitation areas and the restaurant are strategically placed on the third floor, facing the terrace on the top of the base of the project. This location allows them to open to the outside, towards the corner, and thus providing excellent views of the city, as well as giving access to a beautiful garden with diverse vegetation of native species and water mirrors. The quality of this space emerges as a green island within the urban context massively built and devoid of green areas.
Planned to promote the best environment for health practice, and located strategically in the center of all Southern hospitals, the MedVie Medical Center also facilitates and perfects the routines of all the professionals involved in the health functions of the center. Bringing together solutions in a single space, the complex is composed by environments designed for radiotherapy, radiology, endoscopy, pathology, laboratory, oncology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, cardiology, dermatology, pulmonary rehabilitation clinic, dentistry clinic, vaccine clinic, clinic aesthetics and Day-Hospital, in addition to drugstore, manipulation pharmacy, medical products stores, bank branch, cafeteria, leisure and food spaces. All of this is what makes the MedVie venture the states most modern healthcare project, and unique in the region.

Development and construction - Censi empreendimentos.
Gross Floor Area = 34.765,00 m²
Consulting: ProMedical Consultoria e Planejamento em Saúde and Bioeng Projetos de alta complexidade.
Landscaping: Telli Vontobel
Interiors: C2

Torres & Bello Architects
Alberto Torres
Audrey Bello Ramos

MedVie - Health centres by Torres Arquitetos in Brazil won the WA Award Cycle 25. Please find below the WA Award poster for this project.