SCIENCE CENTER MEDICAL OTTO BOCK BY GNÄDINGER ARCHITEKTEN

A new building presents itself in the center of the New Berlin – the Science Center Medical Technology at Potsdamer Platz. The new building is the representative office in the capital city for the medical technology company Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH.

The building owners Otto Bock, the team of Gnädinger Architects and the media designers Art+Com developed this unique public stage for the topic of movement, which is the first of it's kind in the world. An exhibition invites visitors to "discover what moves us".

Starting from the idea of human muscle fibers, the Berlin architectural firm Gnädinger was assigned the task of creating an amorphous, abstract façade, which wraps dynamically around the six-storey, reinforced concrete frame, encompassing around 1, 000 square meters of floor space.

The architectural design was intended to bring high-tech and nature together in a harmonious manner. The organically-formed, white exterior buckled bands encircle the rounded body of the building, based on the model of human muscle fibers, a metaphor for the simulation of complex biological processes and structures

The outer shell, an expressive aluminum and glass façade, is unusual for the city of Berlin, and provides a kind of acupuncture of new architecture amongst Berlin's traditional stone buildings and glassy modernism. In the immediate vicinity of buildings by architects ranging from Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano, Helmut Jahn, Hans Kollhoff to gmp, this compact structure demonstrates a confident independence.

The Science Center Medical Technology responds to the context of the city's stone buildings and their serially repetitive stylistic devices with a new sensual, individualistic quality. With its complex, flowing forms based on freeform curves (splines), a new vibrancy is created, which goes beyond the already well-known standard of the tediously serial. The building therefore takes up this conceptual game in order to rediscover sensuality in the contemporary implementation of ornament in architecture.

Behind the extravagant exterior with its convex and concave, tapered lines, three levels serve as exhibition space on over 500 square meters. The fourth level is for training and conference rooms and the top floor serves as a dialogue platform for interdisciplinary communication between doctors, patients, therapists, orthopedic technicians and manufacturers.

Inside, the functional surfaces surround a central access and technical core. The zoning of the plan with a windmill-like access system allows the planning of different room sizes. Here, the architects arrange the floor space on the periphery and along the glass cladding, so that even behind the dynamic façade, daylight is guaranteed throughout the room, giving the building high quality as a residence and workplace.

The interior is consistently minimalist. The surfaces are white, with silver-gray stone or carpet on the floors. Even the furniture and the exhibits are predominantly white. At the core, in contrast, are colored glass panels with integrated TV monitors to provide information.

Dark, wooden panels create atmospheric accents in the elevator and a few select places. Illumination is provided by means of so-called "light cells", which are freely arranged, round light fields of various sizes and heights. The central, three-storey, steel staircase in the exhibition area was designed as a giant, sculptural light object. The translucent foil on the underside is fully backlit.

 

Location: Berlin, Germany 
Architect: GnädingerArchitekten 
Project Team: Rolf Gnädinger, Christoph Claus (project director in charge), Ayfer Zeissig, Babette Drilling 
Area: Site Area: 849 m2 • Building Area: 493 m2 • Gross Floor Area: 1845 m2 
Year: Design: 2007 • Completion: 2009

COLUMBIA'S NEW MEDICAL CENTER

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) recently announced plans for a new, state-of-the-art medical and graduate education building on the CUMC campus in the Washington Heights community of Northern Manhattan, New York, NY.

The new building, with a design led by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, in collaboration with Gensler as executive architect, is a 14-story facility that incorporates technologically advanced classrooms, collaboration spaces, and a modern simulation center, all reflecting how medicine is and will be taught, learned, and practiced in the 21st century.

The building will become an important landmark to the skyline of Northern Manhattan – as it will be visible from the nearby George Washington Bridge and Riverside Park. Construction is expected to begin in early 2013 and will take approximately 42 months.

"The new building provides upgraded education facilities that reflect the eminence of one of the top medical schools in the world. Both the building and the newly created green space that will surround it will also revitalize our campus in ways that will benefit both our medical center and the entire community,” said Lee Goldman, M.D., dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine at CUMC and executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences at Columbia University.

Located on existing Columbia property on Haven Avenue between West 171st and West 172nd Streets, the Medical and Graduate Education Building will be used by students from all four CUMC schools (P&S, Nursing, Dental Medicine and the Mailman School of Public Health), and the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Its high-tech medical simulation center, which will allow hands-on learning in realistic settings, will transform the way CUMC trains health professionals in medicine, dentistry, and nursing, as well as how practicing physicians maintain their clinical skills and learn new techniques.

The design weaves together areas for study and other activities. It features technology-enabled classrooms; a state-of-the-art medical simulation center that will replicate clinics, operating rooms and other real world medical environments; innovative learning facilities for both collaboration and quiet study; an auditorium and event areas with integrated technology; centralized student support services; student lounges and cafés; and multiple purpose outdoor spaces, including a terrace with views of the Hudson River.

The “Study Cascade” is the principle design strategy of the building - a network of social and study spaces distributed across oversized landings along an intricate 14-story stair. The Study Cascade creates a single interconnected space the height of the building, stretching from the ground floor lobby to the top of the building, and conducive to collaborative, team-based learning and teaching. The “Study Cascade” interiors are complemented by a distributed network of south-facing outdoor “rooms” and terraces that are clad with cement panels and wood. While the “Study Cascade” provides an organizational strategy for the building’s interior, it is also an urban gesture that, with its glass façade, aims to become a visual landmark at the northern limit of Columbia University’s medical campus. The northern face of the building houses space for classrooms, clinical simulation and administration and support.

“The new Medical and Graduate Education Building will be the social and academic anchor of the CUMC campus,” said Elizabeth Diller, principal-in-charge of the project Diller Scofidio + Renfro. “Spaces for education and socializing are intertwined to encourage new forms of collaborative learning among students and faculty.”

“The architecture of the (campus) revitalization program is really powerful and brings medical students, dental students, graduate students all together and makes us feel more like we are part of the community,” said Kally Pan, a doctoral candidate in P&S and a member of a student committee that participated in the design process.


The Medical and Graduate Education Building incorporates green design and building techniques that will create a welcoming environment and contribute to the long-term sustainability of the entire neighborhood. The University is planning the building to meet LEED-Gold standards for sustainability. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a national design standard for green buildings and sustainability which is administered by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).