Designed as a one-stop premier comprehensive specialist medical centre, Perennial International Specialist Medical Centre joins the healthcare wave following the Chinese government’s drive towards ‘big-health’. Comprising two blocks–A1 for specialist medical clinics and retail stores in its two basement levels, and A2 as the hospital with five storeys and three basement levels—the healthcare development houses a combination of local and foreign specialist departments.

Originally planned as a shopping centre, the conversion of building type and functions required not only a relook at the spatial programming and interior design, but also our approach to healthcare design. Our design scheme leaned into the possible advantages for user experience that could be drawn from the existing mall layout and structure. The central atrium, purposed as a central node of activity as well as an inter-floor visual linkage, was retained with the same functional objectives in the new medical centre. By programming all circulatory paths, departments and clinics around it, the atrium was proposed to be the central core of circulation, thereby allowing straightforward way-finding and easy accessibility.

Bringing the hospitality philosophy into healthcare, the design opts for a warm colour scheme complemented with textural material choices such as timber and fabric. This is extended to the selection of lighting in the interior scheme, with warm, indirect lighting replacing harsh, white fluorescent lights in public spaces. Murals of flowers native to Chengdu enliven the space, creating a positive healing environment conducive for patients’, medical workers’ and visitors’ wellbeing.

Read the full design narrative here.