Refurbishment and Extension San Juan de Dios Hospital

The architectural project is aimed clearly towards the recovery of the original values of the building. First, recover the old plan criteria, based upon a framework of movement axes, enables a harmonic image of both the new and the refurbished building. This general framework also allows a displacement of the relationship between building and its urban surroundings towards the forefront sides of each block the same way it happened in the original building. Second, the comb shaped plan has also a positive impact in urban landscape and building image because the perceived volume is much smaller than the real one. This was a key point in the new design because of the low density and mainly single family house area in which the hospital is now located. And third, once the forefront of the plot would become free of the parking space, the hospital is understood as a group of pavilions surrounded by garden areas. In this, the new ones will appear to float over the grassy soil, while the former ones emerge from it. Those garden areas are used as a leisure park for patients and families, with its own pedestrian streets and squares.