Blossom Hospital

Medical services have almost become the scarcest and most important type of public resources in China, for their allocation is facing the impossible trinity, in which low prices, high efficiency and good services are not available at the same time.

Chinese general hospitals offer medical services at an affordable price, but they usually get as crowded as a railway station due to their open management. Here are the medical records of a COVID-19 patient in Tianjin. Owing to the complicated arrangement of flows in this hospital, 973 people were under quarantine for direct or indirect contact with this one patient. Prevention is better than treatment. If the flows were better designed, the number of people exposed to the virus would have been reduced by 90%, making it possible for the hospital to provide more precise prevention and treatment for the rest 10%.

The design of general hospitals in China usually focuses on the function of medical equipment. Hospitals are as cold as machines, there is no relief and comfort for patients or easy and safe working environment for doctors. Our design puts emphasis on the experience of both doctors and patients, by combining and reorganizing the inpatient, outpatient, emergency and medical technology departments, which are currently separated in hospitals, we have designed a public floor, a technology floor, and a service floor from bottom to top to share resources and improve efficiency. The building looks like an orchid, for this is a bright and scented flower in Confucius’s poem, and it always represents nobility and integrity in Chinese culture. Apart from the graceful form, the building also presents a friendly scale and careful attention to details. As the world is fighting the coronavirus pandemic, this building symbolizes the spirit and character of Chinese doctors. Moreover, it eases the tension between hospitals and residents with better medical services.

Liu Jinrui, Zou Mingxi, Feng Qiong, Li Jiayan, Xie shunbing, Lai Wuyi, Guan Haoting, Gao Xueying