Situation_
La Gomera, Spain
Date_
2001 - 2009
Area_
13.000 m2
Project and construction management_
Gádor de Carvajal, Juan Casariego, Genaro Alas, Pedro Casariego, Baquerizo Cruz Petrement arquitectos
Client_
Servicio Canario de Salud. Consejería de Sanidad. Gobierno de Canarias
The beautiful landscape of the island of La Gomera together with the terraced hillside where the hospital stands, inspired the effort of the whole team to design a building that would not appear as a strange imposition on the landscape.
They designed a building with a clear form, adapting the section to the lie of the land, which varies between one and two storeys. With an extensive layout, it is planned in the shape of a comb along two corridors from which you have access to the various services, the public access from the gallery parallel to the facade, and the hospital staff and patients from the central spine.
With large windows that allow the enjoyment of the beautiful landscapes, they resorted to the superimposition of a veil of a perforated metal sheet over the openings to restrain the excessive sun and filter the light. Depending on the angle of approach to the building, the double skin offers a changing appearance of the façade which is radically different from daytime to nighttime.
The extensive prairie-style green roof that covers the building minimizes the negative impact that a building of this size might have caused in a setting of smaller buildings. The low key impact of the building, the green roof and the open spaces significantly reduce the footprint of the building on the landscape, without however, discrediting the merit of being a public building of importance within the community.