High Resolution Hospital in Cazorla

CREDITS

Situation

Road A-319 Cazorla-Peal de Becerro. Cazorla. Jaén

Promoter

Junta de Andalucía
Servicio Andaluz de Salud

Architects

EDDEA
Ignacio Laguillo. Project and construction management
Luis Ybarra. Project and construction management
Harald Schönegger. Competition and project

Execution direction

EDDEA
Eladio Suarez, technical architect

Roberto Alés, technical architect

Colaborators

Project and construction management
Miguel Sibón, industrial engineer
Enrique Cabrera, civil engineer

Construction management
Ignacio Olivares, architect
Blanca Farrerons, architect
Javier Salvador, architect
Jaime Fernández, architect
Alejandro de la Torre, technical architect
Jaime García (V.Olimpia), landscaping

Occupational Hazards
Jesús Martínez (Prevencoor)

Competition and project
José María Sánchez, architect
Carlos Serrano, architect


Contractor, builder

DRAGADOS

Antonio Vecino, civil engineer

Francisco J. Luque, technical architect

Hilario Nuñez, technical architect
Carlos Cabana, technical architect
Pascual Molina, technical architect

Builded surface

9.610 m2

Budget
17.811.341,34 euros

Competition
2007

Building trade
2009 - 2018

Photographs
Fernando Alda, photographer

PROJECT REPORT

Jaen countryside is characterized by low ridges and hills where the land creates a natural amphitheatre crossed by the Guadalquivir River and its tributaries. For the last centuries, the region represents the clearest example of the Andalusian landscape. In fact, it is the biggest humanized forest of the world with more than sixty million olive trees. Being part of the Roman cultural heritage, this panorama guide us to our location, on the threshold of Sierra de Cazorla Natural Park.

Architecture and Landscape

Generally, medical infrastructures have a very strong impact on their surroundings. However, the beauty of this area made us think and develop appropriate strategies to avoid affecting the landscape image. Taking advantage of the location, right next to a Natural Park and close to the town, the architecture emphasize the future relation between the patient and this environment as the first therapeutic care to provide.

Placed in a plot of 30.000 m2 with variable topography, our suggestion to avoid an impact with a programme of 10.000 m2 in this scene is mainly the rational result of two decisions. The way in which the building sets with the proper scale and appearance and the recognition of unity. The Hospital Centre is not a lineal construction and refuse to have a long and plane façade without affecting its functional efficiency. On the contrary, the building spreads through the territory and merges with the environment in a natural way, avoiding being recognized from the distance.

The building is distributed in three floors with the main entrance in the intermediate floor and most public one which holds open functions and diverse relations. This level is distinguished by the accesses and the rhythm of public spaces as squares and courtyards that are positioned in the optimum orientation in order to satisfy each particular function. The upper floor is the smallest one and its programme is limited to operation and hospitalization while the below ground area keep the restricted spaces accessible from the outside by a road.

The programme structure tries to solve the circulation problems that many medical infrastructures have by separating it into two levels. One for the medical staff and the other one for patients and relatives through double circulation and locks that restrain the access when it is required.

Conifers, bushes and forest plants will be planted to recuperate the exterior spaces that have been modified by the need of retaining walls and accesses. This kind of vegetation will give them the image that we are looking for, integrated in this exceptional location and preserving the memory of the place.

Feeling at home with the prominence of natural lighting

We spend a third part of our lives working. It is known that the place where we develop what we do influence highly in how we do it. The importance of the natural lighting, the presence of green areas and our relation with them, made us become aware of ourselves and of what we do daily.
Skylights, courtyards and big windows in façade, allow us to keep the reference to our environment and to the timing of the day. They also play a significant role generating a calm and homely atmosphere that we put in value when we spend our day in those kind of spaces.

Construction and materials

Jaen, land of pottery, recognize ceramic, and specially bricks as the local material. However, nowadays they are used with the actual techniques and requirements as ventilated façades.

The most interesting characteristic for us in the process of selecting a material it is the ability of the material itself to inspire or transform the perception of the space or the environment. Instead of using white, the colour that predominates in the town, we wanted to blend in with the territory, the countryside and the Sierra de Cazorla Natural Park. We achieve it not only with the ceramic, but also with the volcanic grave used for the roof that surrounds all the building in the same colour spectrum. In addition, the vegetation helps to reduce the visual impact of the project from any point of view.

The abstraction of the façades shows the most representative and necessary part that every institution demand. The construction joints appear in an exaggerate manner, both in number and size. This creates a composition with the different apertures in façade, where the order and chaos reveal their most uncertain aspect. Inside the building, the neutrality of the white partitions coexist with the natural stone and transparency of the glass and skylights.

The real cost of Hospitals.

The quality of our Public Health Care can be compared with the best ones thanks to the talent and vocation of our professionals. To keep the same standards in the spaces and infrastructures it is required a strong effort. It is necessary an exercise of synthesis, efficiency and rationality, without leaving the innovation apart, even when the investment stays three times lower than similar projects in other regions of our country or Europe.