The absence of medical services has been increasing in the countryside in France, creating a medical-less limbo condition for its population. Emergencies have become an odyssey. In order to reach medical assistance, the rural population have to travel long distances to get access to medical care, sometimes taking more than hour journey.
Project Name: Medical Center
Office Name: OVERCODE architecture urbanisme
Completion Year: 2023
Gross Built Area (m2/ ft2): 270 m²
Project Location: Juvigny-Le-Tertre (50), France
Lead Architects: Claire GARCIA BARRIET / Alejandro GARCIA MARTA / Osvaldo GOUNON
Photo Credits: DAVID FOESSEL
The mayor wanted to create a solution by building a small medical center for the town, so doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, etc. could come and practice locally.
The project belongs to a series of urban interventions aiming to boost the activities taking place in this rural context. So the project sits at an end point of a new park, between the church and the market square. The access to the park had to be integrated into the design of the new building, in order to create a continuity of experience when strolling around the center.
The medical center includes 3 doctor’s cabinets that are able to function independently, therefore one entrance and waiting room by cabinet where part of the brief. With the aim of nurturing a sense of belonging between the medical team the common areas are shared by all (cafeteria, archives, technical facilities, etc…)
The site revealed too small for the project, so the idea was to propose a building that it’s part of the square and the park at the same time. In order to achieve this, we were able to integrate the entrance to the park by intervening into an existing building next to the site by creating a porch. Therefore, ensuring access and visual connections deep into the block, hence inviting the local population to wander around.
The intention to anchor the project to its rural condition without any mimesis guided our pinch roof proposition. The pinch roof typology allows us to project a house within a house principle in section, thus creating different volumes for different activities within the same envelope. A skylight that runs along the north roof introduces light and visual connections at the heart of the building, creating waiting rooms and corridors flooded with natural light.
Three programmatic strips are organized into the envelope: waiting rooms, internal circulation and doctor’s cabinets. The entrance and waiting rooms are in direct contact with the square to facilitate the accessibility into the building. The internal corridor, that connects all the activities through the building, performs as a buffer zone and as a space of encounter between doctors/patient and doctors/doctors. The doctors are then organized on the north side of the building guaranteeing a degree of intimacy on the interiors.
The materialization of the project plays a willingly ambiguous relationship with the context, where a concrete façade detaches from the existing condition, the black slate roof connects with the roof landscape encounter on site. The roof overhang in the building is strategically tilted so it generates “another” kind of situation between roof and mass. With the purpose of connecting the building to the public square an oversized overhang roof creates a space for gatherings right at the corner condition, where the building meets the square, as it protects the façade from the sun exposure.
