The collaboration between the hospital and Carleton is an example of how students gain relevant experience and engage with the community on timely issues. The collaboration began in 2019 and continues in the 2020-2021 academic year.
Fourteen students took part in this experiential learning, led by Prof. Federica Goffi. The project was to develop a Welcome Centre where volunteers and staff provide information and help to patients and families. It is also a place to buy gifts, order services, and pay for parking.
One of the interesting elements of the collaboration was the timing. The group visited the hospital’s Civic campus in January and the General campus in February. On March 18, Carleton University moved teaching online.
As the students transitioned to online studies, they altered their design in consideration of the hospital’s crucial role during the pandemic. Focus shifted from the general well-being of users to infection control of potential COVID patients.
The students produced eight projects that explore the links between personal wellness and the spaces of health care. With a focus on details and defining the qualities of “hospitable” architecture, the projects built on the vision of The Ottawa Hospital and its Volunteer Resources and Program Planning departments.
The Oasis: Biophilia – Connor DeJonge and Jillian Weinberger seek to make calming moments of beauty in spaces more usually associated with stress and illness. Transparency brings the outdoors indoors. Inside the building, vertical tubular glass lattice structures pass through the floors, becoming light-filled “terrariums” “like rays of greenery beaming into the building’s core.” A two-level road system allows people to enter from the ground or lower level. An additional entrance on the ground floor can serve as an isolated “pandemic” entrance.
Pathways to Wellness – Katie Wilson and Melissa Brady begin their project with the idea of a journey, both to visit loved ones and toward healing. To preserve trees and address the challenge of a slope, they designed an enclosed pathway, that incorporates a covered drop-off area and a ramp extending to the Welcome Centre. The ramp has rest areas and plantings. A dramatic roof structure echoes the movement of the paths leading to the information desk, a focal point. Views connect to the outdoors.
Symbiosis – Arkoun Merchant and Kito Ballentyne note the importance of nature and sunlight in human well-being. They propose a dramatic structure that refers to a tree in its vertical spreading form and creates the Welcome Centre space. Its branching form supports bacteria-resistant fiberglass fabric panels to make a light-filled environment. A recessed lounge offers a private nook to destress. The scheme includes the use of partition walls to separate high-risk and general patients to minimize infection.
The Oculus: Purposefully Incomplete – Luis Panchi Galvan and Hassan Hannawi imagine the Welcome Centre as a distinct, self-contained building joined into the ring-shaped building suggested by the master plan. Its strong vertical form and sloping walls give identity. Any future vertical expansion of the hospital is accommodated by its height. The title “Oculus” comes from its design to bring in light. The multiple floors vary to accommodate the different functions of the Welcome Centre and to receive healing light.
Perforated Screens: To Conceal and To Reveal – Wendy Yuan proposes floating the different functions of the Welcome Centre in a series of curved pods of activity within the large overall space. Perforated screens articulate the enclosures and ceilings, allowing light and air and providing privacy. A central information desk is a point of reference for visitors and the surrounding pods. A compass on the ceiling above the desk is part of a way-finding system of pattern and colour that extends to the floor and corridors.
To Guide – To Heal – To Comfort – Nicole Coutinho and Vanessa De Alexandris design a Wellness Centre made lively by colour, material, and shape. A wall of coloured glass proposes that the architectural enclosure be art, rather than contain it. The possibilities of colour as “chromatherapy” are suggested. Curving walls and staircase define smaller spaces adjusted to the scale of a person or small group within the centre. Built-in alcoves can switch from storing equipment to housing a patient in extraordinary circumstances, with a foldable wall barrier for privacy.
A Journey to Healing – David Bastien-Allard and Nadia Maarouf accommodate the Welcome Centre with a series of rectilinear spaces for the functions, held together by a large central volume providing access and orientation. The enclosure is a lattice of wood, transparent glass, and light. Water from the roof is channeled through the structure – imagined as a tree sculpture – to be collected and filtered before use in the building. The spaces for people under the tree sculpture are a healing place, like sitting under a tree in a park.
Ataraxia – Merissa Lompart names the project with the Greek word “Ataraxia,” meaning extreme calmness. In her proposal, plants, light, colour, and a wood structure are used to make intimate spaces adjusted to the scale of visitors and patients. The geometry of the wood structure provides rhythm and unity. Way-finding is assisted by colour. Plant rooms provide a space for visitors or patients to plant seeds or a small plant and nurture it for the duration of their stay.
“Proper details are critical in defining our sense of place and providing comfort and care for residents, visitors, volunteers and medical staff,” said Goffi. “Nevertheless, often, medical facilities are designed to best house machines rather than people.”
In response to the pandemic, Goffi asked students to address questions such as how to compartmentalize the Welcome Centre during a pandemic or adapt hospital corridors – traditionally non-adaptable spaces – in times when the full capacity of the hospital is exceeded.
They also considered extra-to-ordinary features such as a dedicated staff entrance, drive-through areas for testing and drop-off, and vehicular circulation on two levels or the two sides of the hospital.
Carleton gives special thanks to The Ottawa Hospital’s Sherri Daly, manager of Volunteer Resources, and Michelle Currie, manager of Program Planning, for their advice throughout the project.
