John Cooper Architecture

Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital

Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren

NELSON MANDELA CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

Sheppard Robson + John Cooper Architecture + GAPP + Ruben Reddy Architects

ARCHITECT IN CHARGE
Sheppard Robson

MAIN CONTRACTOR
Group Five

QUANTITY SURVEYING
Mbatha Walters & Simpson

MANUFACTURERS
Regent, Combined Ceilings And Partitions, Edison Power Gauteng, Genstar Lighting, Giant Lighting, Govenders Aluminium And Glass, Hutz Medical, Life Landscapes, Lighting Innovations, Rhino Civils, Spiral Engineering, Tri-Star Painting And Renovations, Truestyle Hard Landscaping Solutions

INTERIOR DESIGNER
BON BON, BLACKBIRD DESIGN, ID:SR SHEPPARD ROBSON

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Greeninc Landscape Architecture

M&E
Spoormaker & Partners, Mnjiya Consulting Engineers

PROJECT MANAGER
SIP Project Managers

MECHANICAL & ELECTRICAL
Mnjiya Consulting Engineers, Spoormaker & Partners

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Mott MacDonald

QS
Mbatha Walters & Simpson

PHOTOGRAPHS
Tristan McLaren

AREA
29900 m²

YEAR
2016

LOCATION
Johannesburg, South Africa

CATEGORY
Hospital

Text description provided by architect.

UK-based architecture firms Sheppard Robson and John Cooper Architecture (JCA) collaborated in 2009 to win an international design competition for the new Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg. The facility will employ 150 paediatric doctors and 450 nurses.

Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren
Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren

Sheppard Robson and JCA, responsible for the concept design of the hospital, were joined by local architects GAPP and Ruben Reddy.

GAPP Architects & Urban Designers were responsible for the development of the facade and public spaces within the hospital, whilst Ruben Reddy Architects were the local lead and site architects, with a scope that included the design development of the clinical and operational facilities of the building and overall coordination.

Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren
Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren

The team drew together specialist design skills with local experience and expertise to deliver the vision for the new hospital, which centred on creating a modern state-of-the-art paediatric tertiary facility located on the University of the Witwatersrand’s education campus in Parktown, Johannesburg – a central position allowing it to service the needs of the region’s populations.

The design is a 200-bed, eight-theatre facility, with advanced diagnostics and future plans for expansion to 300 beds. It will operate in partnership with the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School as a primary base, and will engage with all medical training facilities across the region.

Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren
Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren

The hospital includes specialist facilities for the treatment of: cardiovascular, neurological, haematological, oncological, endocrine, metabolic and renal diseases. The project also includes facilities for paediatric surgery, whilst supporting paediatric academic research and training.

A key element of the brief was to construct a hospital that provides high-quality child healthcare in a natural healing environment.

Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren
Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren

This focus on connecting to nature would go on to shape the design of the project and be a starting point to creating a welcoming, safe environment for both children and parents.

The competition-winning design broke away from housing all departments in a single ‘box’ building, which often leads to deep floorplates where the patients and staff have little contact with the outside world.

Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren
Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren

After extensive consultation, it was clear that long, institutional and windowless corridors should be avoided in favour of a plan that connected to its natural surroundings.

Sheppard Robson and JCA’s concept revolved around creating six wings, each with its own specialism. These were connected by a ‘street’ that ran through the centre of the project. This ‘street’ was vital for connectivity, with three main junctions that enable efficient flow of people. The separation of floors of floors avoided cross-overs and assisted wayfinding.

Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren
Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren

By breaking down the mass of the building into six elements, the design has a domestic, human scale that reassuring and familiar to children. Further moving away from a feeling of institutional design, each wing has subtle twists of the common design language to give it a distinct identity; for example, the colour of the solar shading walls – formed from horizontal rails – changes for each department, picking up on vibrant, local colours.

This composition increased the length of the perimeter of the building and created shallow floorplates. This meant more natural light could flood into the building, placing many treatment spaces next to windows which made the most of the views out over the surrounding landscape as well into the internal courtyards created in between the hospitals wings.

Spaces that invite contemplation, the five internal therapeutic courtyards and the three exterior therapy gardens were designed for occupational therapy and children’s play.

Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren
Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
© Tristan McLaren

The landscape is predominantly indigenous, using plant species found in the nearby Melville Koppies Nature Reserve.The external spaces were created with healing in mind, and the design encourages patients to use the outdoor spaces as part of their recovery.

The wards are positioned on the second floors of the wings to maximise views out, whilst more heavily serviced, critical care facilities are located in more private spaces on the lower levels.


Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
Sketch
Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
Sketch


Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
Concept Section
Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
Section
Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
Section
Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
Section


Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
Lower Ground Floor Plan
Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
Ground Floor Plan
Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital
1st Floor Plan

John Cooper Architecture
T +44 207 9534090
John Cooper Architecture
231 Vauxhall Bridge Rd, Pimlico, London SW1V 1AD, United Kingdom
Ruben Reddy Architects, (Pty) Ltd.
T +27 31 3016122
Ruben Reddy Architects, (Pty) Ltd.
641 Peter Mokaba Ridge Road Essenwood, Berea, Durban, 4001, South Africa
Sheppard Robson
T +44 20 75041700 F +44 20 75041701
Sheppard Robson
77 Parkway, London NW1 7PU, United Kingdom