Memoir Medical Clinic

Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue

MEMOIR MEDICAL CLINIC

Estudio ELGUE

ARCHITECTS
Estudio ELGUE

LOCATION
Paraguay

CATEGORY
Houses

ARCHITECTS IN CHARGE
Luis Elgue, Cecilia Román

AREA
350.0 m2

PROJECT YEAR
2016

PHOTOGRAPHS
Berenice Gómez Crosa

MANUFACTURERS
Chacore, Casa Marco

OTHERS PARTICIPANTS
Jorgelina Rolón, Jessica Cattoni, Jorge Amarilla, Daniela Caballero, Kike Salinas, Daira Pereira

In the middle of formulation and reformulation of the contemporary city model in search of multiple resource optimization, the issue of housing production occupies a relevant chapter if we talk about energy saving, efficient mobility and reduced pollution.

Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue
Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue
Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue

The space - time between these two activities is determinant, the greater the gap between housing and work, the greater the problems.

From there, the idea of the urban productive unit is a solution, “I work where I live and I live where I work”; and if, in addition, existing structures for Reform and Enlargement are reused, we believe that we are collaborating with an efficient model of city, and we are facing an operation not only of recycling material, but also of an ethical order.

The project consists of the reform of an existing house into a medical clinic - house, a space that is not entirely public or entirely private, a “half-breed” space.

Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue
Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue

The clinic is articulated spatially as two bars of offices parallel to the street (one existing and the other proposed) and an interstice that contains common areas:

stairs, services and patios, a withdrawal of the municipal line as a public space, which connects the street with the interior of waiting rooms and patios, unifying them in a large void at ground level.

Memoir Medical Clinic
Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue
Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue

The building proposes natural resources for energy saving: patios N/S for ventilation and natural lighting, difference in ceiling heights for cross ventilation, convection ventilation, indirect light E/W, and a ceramic brick mesh for the west façade, the most exposed to the sun in Paraguay.

Although brick is a commonly used material for its abundance and low cost in Paraguay, recognized in its logic of supporting material, in this work we use it in the opposite direction, exploring other non-traditional modes of construction.

Using the technique of prefabrication of panels armed in site, we propose skins in multiple structural conditions: hanging and detachable in ceilings; working the cut in a double skin that unifies new construction with the existing one and in a double-height mesh supported at an equilibrium point: in a mixed structural condition, traction compression and lateral buckling ...

Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue
Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue

this ceramic shell is a large parasol that solves heat and excess light of the west quadrant and configures the main part of the assembly, connects the whole to the street, and is responsible for the final image.

In this fusion between public and private space, this brick epidermis functions as a configurator and identifier of the public space from the interior of the clinic to the public outdoor space.

Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue
Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue
Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue

In the dialectic public space,clinic and private space, these ceramic membranes suspended horizontally and vertically construct the intestine that configures the common space:

that of the meeting between the house and the clinic, the permanent inhabitant and the transitory, and connects them to the street...

it is a mark, the accent of a voice that tries to extract the essence of that mixed life and offers it to the city, as an expression of a more urban life.... and more human.

Memoir Medical Clinic
Courtesy of Estudio Elgue


Memoir Medical Clinic
Section Plans
Memoir Medical Clinic
Ground Floor Plan
Memoir Medical Clinic
First Floor Plan


Memoir Medical Clinic
Process
Memoir Medical Clinic
Longitudinal Section
Memoir Medical Clinic
Facade


Memoir Medical Clinic
Section Detail
Memoir Medical Clinic
Details
Memoir Medical Clinic
Sketch
Memoir Medical Clinic
Ground Floor Plan


Memoir Medical Clinic
Model
Memoir Medical Clinic
Diagram