ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
The wayfinding wood accents ‘complement the extensive use of glazing in the façades to develop the connection between indoor and outdoor space and enhance the feeling of openness’.
are located centrally in the plan, with open views to both north and south, allowing for intuitive wayfinding along light-filled corridors. Each floor is laid out according to the same planning principles, and houses clinics and infusion treatment spaces according to tumour type.
A ‘simple and intuitive journey’ The whole ethos of this layout has been to deliver a simple and intuitive patient journey, infused with daylight. The layout guides patients to the same location on every visit, unless they are attending for radiotherapy treatment or imaging, which is located on the lower ground floor, due to the weight and shielding requirements of the linear accelerators (linacs). The design incorporates natural light in the lower ground floor environment thanks to an all-glazed skylight above the linac circulation route that is neatly accommodated in the vehicle drop-off turn around. There is also an internal connection to the car park via the skyway – a high-level internal link that links the Cancer Center to the rest of the campus buildings and car parks. Consequently, patients can choose either to park and walk under cover, or to drop off their car with the valet parking attendants, accessing the building without running the gauntlet of the unpredictable Ohio climate.
Aesthetic considerations
While there has been a concerted effort in the UK to move healthcare environments – particularly cancer centre environments – away from an imposing, clinical aesthetic, and towards a more homely, reassuring look and feel, the design brief for the Taussig Cancer Center was much more focused on communicating the advanced nature of the treatment received. The former CEO of Cleveland Clinic, Dr Toby Cosgrove, has described the aesthetic for the Cancer Center as ‘compassionate minimalism’, and requested a design that would use tranquillity, order, and lightness of both structure and internal space to communicate the combination of science and healthcare underpinning treatment and best practice. As a result, the building’s appearance is contemporary,
52 Health Estate Journal October 2018
and has been designed to fit effortlessly into the campus, where all the existing building designs articulate a forward- focused, science-based approach to pioneering new treatments and achieving the highest standards of modern healthcare. The simplicity of the external envelope, the organised nature of the layout, and the clean lines and finishes of the interior, have all been specified to create a sense of calm, security, and order. The Cancer Center has been designed both to inspire confidence in the very highest standards of advanced treatment and care, and to communicate empathy for the patient’s wellbeing.
A neutral colour palette
To reach its aesthetic goals, the Cancer Center’s colour palette is neutral, and the finishes are extremely high quality. The wayfinding wood accents complement the extensive use of glazing in the façades to develop the connection between indoor and outdoor space and enhance the feeling of openness. Finishes have been selected to combine practicality with the aesthetic parameters, taking account of feedback from facility management teams on cleaning regimes, and from clinical teams on elements such as storage space and workflows. Solid surface joinery combined with wood veneer delivers the neutral theme, while offering easy-to-clean
surfaces that reflect the prestige and science-based healthcare of the Cancer Center environment.
Curated artworks
Artwork and individually chosen pieces play an important role in enhancing the minimalist interior spaces. These carefully curated artworks support wayfinding throughout the building, providing a sense of location against the blank canvas of the clean, white interior. Indeed, a sense of place has been embedded into the aesthetic design approach for the Cancer Center at every level. Both the chemotherapy infusion rooms and the consultation rooms have been designed on a standardised model with a consistent layout and specification for each, following an extensive stakeholder collaboration with clinical, managerial, and maintenance staff, as well as patient groups. As part of this process, initial designs were mocked up into rooms so that the stakeholder engagement process could include discussion of the spatial layout and the detailed design, including furniture and building services. Identical rooms provide clear benefits for both patients and staff, with clinical teams able to find everything they need instantly, reducing wasted time, disorientation, and the potential for human error. Meanwhile, patients benefit from a sense of the familiar, aligned to the overall
Artwork and individually chosen pieces play an important role in enhancing the minimalist interior spaces.
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