Situation_
Cádiz (Spain)
Date_
2010
Area_
175.000 m2
Project and construction management_
Gádor de Carvajal, Juan Casariego, Jose Manuel Baquerizo, Fernando Cruz, Carlos Petrement, Juan Vicente y Pablo Núñez
Client_
Consorcio Zona Franca Cádiz y Servicio Andaluz de Salud
The new Puerta del Mar hospital is planned on a small and irregular site overlooking the bay, in an urban environment that is not very homogenous. The area is in the process of change and is privileged for its accessibility and proximity to the sea.
Whilst the shortage of space available has meant a greater complexity in the already complicated design of the hospital, we have not wanted to renounce the potential of the building as becoming a new urban landmark of high quality, capable of enhancing the city and to form part of the landscape in the future.
The project creates a newly structured public space by means of a plaza that leads to the entrance and is extended into the triple height lobby of the hospital which overlooks the sea and opens up the city towards the bay. An extensive garden on the third floor gives an impressionable 3D dimension that provides pleasant views of the entire surrounding area.
The careful composition of the building form has a solid three storey podium on which there are three transverse hospital ward units, and the free standing form of the administrative building. This distribution functions very effectively, and allows the seafront to be completed using various shapes and scales.