Dr. D. Y. Patil Hospital

Image courtesy of Shirish Beri & Associates.

Project details

• Project Name: Dr. D. Y. Patil Hospital
• Client: Shri. Vijay D. Patil, President, Continental Medicare Foundation
• Project Type: 500 bedded teaching hospital
• Principal Designer/s: Shirish Beri
• Design Team: Sikandar Nadaph, Milind Ranadive, M. Doiphode, A. Deshpande, G. K. Deuskar
• Contractor/s: Work done departmentally through various sub contractors
• Year of commencement of project: 2002
• Year of completion of project: 2004
• Location of site: Nerul, Navi Mumbai, India
• Site Area: part of approx. 60000 sq. m
• Built-up Area: 30000 sq. m
• Cost of Construction/Execution: 220 M Rupees (civil)

Image courtesy of Shirish Beri & Associates.

The brief was to design a large 30, 000 sqm teaching hospital with almost free treatment for around thousand out patients and five hundred inpatients amidst an urban concrete surrounding. This hospital would not be fully air-conditioned, nor would it have all the expensive high end specifications of the expensive private, paying, super specialty hospitals.

The governing design parameters for such a hospital were thought out as below.

The design of the hospital should contribute to the healing process by

- having a healthy atmosphere with lots of natural light, ventilation and nature (plants, landscaped courtyards)

- having good, direct, short circulation linkages between various easy to locate functions.

Image courtesy of Shirish Beri & Associates.

- efficient planning of the various services like medical gases, CCTV, computer networking, A.C, electricity, water, drainage etc.

- designing for high level of sterility in certain critical areas. Using materials that would stay clean and require minimum maintenance over the years. (especially for the Mumbai climate)

- breaking away from the typical hospital image externally by making it more nature friendly & green as well as internally by avoiding long, dark, smelly passages of a similar hospital.

Image courtesy of Shirish Beri & Associates.

The basic shape in plan was evolved as a result of the above parameters.

It allows for lot of air movement within the building as well as natural light. The large courtyards between wings and smaller ones within the wings provide green soothing relief. Even the plants on stair landings and in planters of parapets enliven and cheer up the place.

The functional interrelationships were studied and short, direct routes worked out, so that the common man (sometimes illiterate) does not get confused and spend valuable time and energy in locating a function.

The central arrival atrium becomes the key orientation landmark.

Image courtesy of Shirish Beri & Associates.

Complex networking and routing of so many service lines has a very important role to play in hospital design. The locations of sources, distribution points, hubs and their supply points have been carefully coordinated as these are the life lines of a hospital.

To reduce maintenance costs and ugly stains (due to Mumbai rains) on the out side, the entire building has glass mosaic tiles on walls and full length glass in the window bays. The inside flooring of Marble, Kotah, vitrified and ceramic tiles with 1.5 m dado also helps in keeping the place clean. The special facade treatment is also designed with the above in mind.

Image courtesy of Shirish Beri & Associates.

Special care was taken in planning the sterile areas like the three major I.C.U.s, M.RI., eleven Operation theaters with their ancillary functions.

The hospital grows out of the green with stepped planters at its base.

The typical box type image of the hospital from out side is broken by creating light, airy green terraces and a shading pergola that would soon be covered with green flowering creepers, making the building look more healthy and eco friendly. Expansion of one more floor in future is provided for.

Image courtesy of Shirish Beri & Associates.

There is no typical hospital smell inside too due to the openness, greenery, light and ventilation nor are there long dark claustrophobic passages.

A sewage treatment plant provides recycled water for gardening and possible flushing. The hydro pneumatic system saves on electricity bills. So does the natural lighting and ventilation. Solar energy saves on the heating hot water bills.

Image courtesy of Shirish Beri & Associates.

The hospital has become a green healthy statement amidst the dense unhealthy, urban sprawl.

Credits

• Text and Photographs, courtesy of Shirish Beri & Associates