building
- the building vision
A building sensitive to the direction
of light and the seasons
“Health depends
on a state of equilibrium among the various factors that govern
the operation of the body and the mind; this equilibrium in
turn is reached only where man lives in harmony with his external
environment.”
Hippocrates
The architectural competition to design the
new Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital was launched in September
1995. Promoted by the Homoeopathic Hospital and West Glasgow
Hospitals University NHS Trust, the competition was supported
by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, by Project
Scotland and by the City of Glasgow in anticipation of its
role as European City of Architecture and Design in 1999.
As a result the architects who applied were
responding to the new vision of care put laid out in the brief
by Dr David Reilly, Director of the new Homoeopathic Hospital
Project and his colleagues. This stated: “Glasgow’s
new Homoeopathic Hospital will serve as a focus of care which
will draw upon modern and traditional approaches to create
good medicine.” It went on: “This new hospital
will signal its healing purpose to viewers from the outside.
It will also create an harmonious interior environment that
will help in the process of healing.”
A distinguished panel of judges was set up that
included Jimmy Cosgrove Deputy Director of the Glasgow School
of Art, Michael Hayes, Director of Planning and Development,
City of Glasgow Council. Jane Herbert, CEO West Glasgow Hospitals
University NHS Trust, David Mackay MBM Architects, Dr David
Reilly and Christine Wolter, Treasurer of the Friends of Glasgow
Homoeopathic Hospital. They decided that the entry submitted
by Macmon Architects had most creatively fulfilled the brief.
They proposed a building design of elegance and seeming simplicity
that would not only satisfy the hospital’s meticulous
operating requirements but also included best practice strategies
for energy use and sustainable design.
The architects from Macmon also expressed great
willingness and enthusiasm to engage with patients, carers,
staff and Trust managers.
“We aim to help
people self-heal – if possible from their disease, but
always from their suffering. We wish to create a space, a
place, an atmosphere, an approach and an experience that helps
this healing happen.”
Dr David Reilly, Introduction to
the Architectural Competition for GHH, 1995
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