While well-designed buildings can undoubtedly help ease pressure points in the healthcare service and deliver intelligent solutions, they cannot alone address every issue surrounding healthcare today. However, evidence-based research has proven that the quality of the environment does make a significant contribution to improving patient satisfaction and raising staff morale. Our core philosophy when designing and master planning these spaces, therefore, is more to do with the creation of therapeutic settings that promote a feeling of wellbeing, rather than the management of ill-health.
Health City Novena is a sustainable community set within a network of beautiful open spaces, promoting pedestrian movement, and connecting to the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), Singapore’s railway network, at Novena.
Our intent was to create a lively place that co-exists within the existing social and urban fabric, becoming a sustainable eco-system. It has been designed around a cluster concept of commercial and transport hubs, ambulatory, integrated learning, intermediate care, healthcare and private healthcare with a community park and significant public realm tying the elements together. The masterplan sets aside preconceived notions of hospitals and creates an environment that will facilitate new methods of care for now and the future.
With a focus on the open spaces and landscape, the overall concept is the design of “A Healthcare Community in a Park”. This landscape-led approach reinforces the primary aim for the creation of a unified healthcare community that will inspire wellbeing and recovery through its beautifully designed buildings and open spaces. This approach was strengthened by landscape guidelines that promote horizontal and vertical greenery with public spaces on the ground level and a series of green terraces and green walls throughout all levels of the buildings.
With approximately 30,000 people expected to use the facilities daily when it is complete, the design ensures that all users can access them efficiently and effectively. This is achieved by linking the buildings at three levels: street level, basement and via sky bridges, operating a dedicated shuttle bus service and locating outpatient facilities next to the MRT station.