Christ & Gantenbein . renders: © Christ Gantenbein / Ponnie Images
The new center for laboratory medicine, Zentrum für Labormedizin, is a pivotal project among St. Gallen’s rapidly developing hospital area.
Christ & Gantenbein’s design for this cutting edge medical facility was revealed at the end of 2020. A first gesture addresses the plot’s contrasted orientations by creating a manifest, representative volume facing the front street, crowning a longitudinal infrastructural body. This volume accommodates the public and civic functions of the center. At the same time, the infrastructural body, oriented towards the back of the plot, fulfils the spatial and technical requirements of the medical laboratories. With a high degree of flexibility built in its DNA, a generous, column-free plateau accommodates offices and laboratory areas. This structural effort is achieved by an ingenious laminated timber frame element that spans over the building depth over 17meters.
The project’s materiality is a subtle interplay between unity and contrast. Loggias open up the unity of the volume on the third and fourth floors; the public area combines adobe columns with large glass openings. The wooden structure of the plateau is clad with aluminum profiles and solar panels. The individual expression of the different parts of the building – head, body, base – is balanced by the regular and uniform rhythm of the static grid on the longitudinal façades.
Besides the new building for the University Hospital of Zurich, this modern, highly automated, and sustainable laboratory building further consolidates Christ & Gantenbein’s position in shaping the future of state of the art medical architecture.
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