Hospital Valais

Location: Sion, Switzerland

Client:  Hospital of Valais

Date:  2015 Competition

Area:  36,790m2

Budget: Undisclosed

Team credits:

AZPML: Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Maider Llaguno-Munitxa, Manuel Eijo, Guillermo Fernandez-Abascal, Ivaylo Nachev, Pep Wennberg.

MED Architects: Vicente Benitez, Vanessa Branco

DF+Partners: Dario Franchini, Silvia Passiglia, Laura Vilalta Ibáñez, Carlotta Sartorio, Laura Fuoco

Bollinger + Grohmann: Kim Boris Löffler, Agnes Weilandt, Mark Fahlbusch

Inspired by the beauty of the surrounding landscape as well as the strong seasonal variations of the local climate, our proposal for the Valais Hospital in Sion has been designed to reconcile these pre-existing natural qualities of the site with the scale of program required for the new extension of the Hospital.

Our proposal seeks to establish a dialogue between the new building and the surrounding natural environment by diminish the conflict between the artificial environments required to maintain necessary antiseptic conditions to accommodate the hospital performances and the natural context which surrounds the site. This will be advantageous not only to preserve the surrounding natural ecosystems, but also for the well-being of the patients of the hospital.

From the area designated for the extension of the hospital, we have decided to locate the new hospital extension to the West of the existing hospital facilities because we consider that the natural landscape on the Southern edge of the site should be preserved.

The proposal is to build a single monolithic volume which will be overgrown with vegetation, where the facilities will be daylit through the introduction of multiple courtyards. These East-West courtyards divide the floor plans in 4 main areas, each occupying 2.025 m2 on the ground floor, and adjacent to the hospital day entrance and main drop-off in the Northwest corner, the reception and meeting areas have been located.

Given the overlap between the underground shelter and the existing building, structural studies have been developed to guarantee that the proposed structural rhythm doesn’t conflict with the structure of the shelter. The exits of the underground shelter and the ventilation shafts have also been redesigned to adjust to the new boundaries.