Amsterdam UMC Imaging Center in The Netherlands by Wiegerinck

Article source: Wiegerinck

In 2010, Wiegerinck won a design competition organised by what was then known as VUmc. Entrants were invited to formulate their vision for a building where all activities associated with medical imaging techniques, a laboratory for scientific research and a production facility for medical isotopes and tracers would be brought together at one location: the new Imaging Center.

Areal View, Image Courtesy © William-Moore

• Architects: Wiegerinck
• Project: Amsterdam UMC Imaging Center
• Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Photography: William Moore, Hanne van der Woude

East Facade, Image Courtesy © William-Moore

Essential step in the redevelopment of VUmc Campus

The official opening of the Imaging Center kicks off the redevelopment of the entire VUmc Campus. This redevelopment is intended to create a campus that is geared towards encounters, inspiration and the exchange of knowledge. To achieve this, the Botanical Garden will be transformed into a secluded courtyard that offers a pleasant environment for both patients and visitors to spend time in.

The Imaging Center is the first in an ensemble of buildings that will eventually enclose the entire courtyard garden. These buildings will all be linked with each other and the hospital in a coherent arrangement by means of a three-storey logistics ring. This logistics ring consists of a colonnade for visitors that encircles the courtyard, a continuous walkway that takes visitors and staff members past each of the buildings, and a logistics route below street level.

West Facade with First part of Colonnade, Image Courtesy © William-Moore

South Facade with Temporary Entrance, Image Courtesy © William-Moore

Knowledge and skills all under one roof

The Imaging Center brings together all Amsterdam UMC’s activities in the field of medical imaging. The new building will house the Radiology and Nuclear Medicine section, with the Tracer Center Amsterdam, BV Cyclotron VU and LaserLaB Amsterdam.

The building has been designed to encourage encounters, communication and collaboration. Encounters between patients and practitioners, between the staff members of the various disciplines that make up the Image Center, between students and teaching staff. Communication and collaboration between these groups can stimulate the exchange of knowledge.

South Facade with Temporary Entrance, Image Courtesy © William-Moore

East and West Facade, Image Courtesy © William-Moore

Accessible, clearly laid out and efficient for patients and staff

A healing environment, short walking distances and a clear logistics settlement are important points of departure in the design. The Imaging Center’s connecting and common areas offer views of the world outside and ample daylight. The research functions for each imaging technique have been brought together in ‘islands’ with a private atmosphere.

This has not only resulted in an eminently legible layout, but also gives users the option of dividing the building into zones. These zones can be used to effect a clear separation between staff and patient streams that come together in the islands. In addition, it is an innovation centre in collaboration with medtech and pharmaceutical companies.

Entrance Area, Image Courtesy © Hanne van der Woude

Atrium, Image Courtesy © Hanne van der Woude

Design

VUmc aims to realise three distinct ambitions with its new Imaging Center: synergy, flexibility and sustainability. The physical concentration of all imaging disciplines at one location is the first step towards a substantive synergy between the faculties. The new building is intended to promote synergy and collaboration between the different parties. The foundations of the design, in other words, are encounters, communication and collaboration. The building has already established itself as an interactive platform for a wide variety of users and visitors.

A complex building like this can be compared to a living organism, in which the different elements all fulfil a specific function and work together as organs to keep the whole alive. Each of the design themes refers to a specific part of the human body.

The feature that stands at most at first glance is the skin. This has been represented with the aid of a concrete framework with large glass panels. The glass sections have been covered with a print that creates a semi-transparent façade. Besides offering various advantages in terms of building physics and privacy, this outer layer is also a subtle indication of what lies inside the building.

Waiting Area on 1st Floor, Image Courtesy © Hanne van der Woude

Corridor on 1st Floor, Image Courtesy © Hanne van der Woude

Flexibility

The Imaging Center houses a large number of imaging devices and accommodates a wide range of users. This places high demands on the building’s flexibility. It has been designed around a universal and robust shell that enables the flexible positioning of all sorts of equipment. Research areas, laboratories and offices can be easily relocated. Imaging equipment can be added or replaced by removing glass sections in the façade – minimising nuisance for patients and staff. And should there be a need for extra space in the years ahead, it is possible to add several new storeys to the building as an expansion.

View on GMP Spaces, Image Courtesy © Hanne van der Woude

GMP Spaces, Image Courtesy © Hanne van der Woude

Sustainability

The initial power demand has been kept to a bare minimum thanks to a meticulous shell design. Its point of departure is the incorporation of functions on the basis of orientation, brise-soleil (horizontal and vertical), high-grade insulating materials, an effective ratio of open/closed, green roofs, circular materials and flexible floor plans. Combined, these measures have resulted in a BREEAM-NL Very Good certification for the new building.

Corridor Along Facade, Image Courtesy © Hanne van der Woude

Techinical Spaces on Topfloor, Image Courtesy © Hanne van der Woude

Situation, Image Courtesy © Wiegerinck

Axometry, Image Courtesy © Wiegerinck

Routes from Entrances, Image Courtesy © Wiegerinck

Concept of Islands, Image Courtesy © Wiegerinck

Functions, Image Courtesy © Wiegerinck

Three Logistics Routes, Image Courtesy © Wiegerinck

Section, Image Courtesy © Wiegerinck

Section, Image Courtesy © Wiegerinck

3D Section, Image Courtesy © Wiegerinck

Tags: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Categories: complex, Laboratory, Laboratory and Office, Medical production unit, Production Hall

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