HQ Architects has been commissioned to re-envision the future of the Sheba Medical Center, ranked the world’s 9th best hospital. In a post-pandemic reflection, part of our approach is to embrace the uncertainty of future circumstances and how this precariousness can affect healthcare and the medical future, and at the same time provide a functional, efficient and resilient healing environment.
The brief calls for rethinking the Sheba Medical Center for the next 25 years, aiming to reach 1.450.000 m² by 2045. The current plot of 550,000 m² is partly sitting on a hill, located in the midst of a pastoral area in the outskirts of Tel Aviv, which is projected to become fully urbanised in the next decades while the hospital expands.
Our vision for the Hospital responds to the three main principles of the brief, which are based on expansion, accommodation and integration. Re-imagining Sheba will involve the creation of a border free medical complex that has the feel of an open campus. Ultimately, the hospital complex will be transformed from a secluded camp to an urban campus that is connected to the urban surroundings. The expansion of this new healthcare environment is focusing on longevity medicine that promotes well-being, in addition to disease treatment. The new and expanded Sheba Medical Center will include a green city; the ground floor level will be adjusted for pedestrian use and will offer green spaces on several levels of the complex, utilizing previously unused and inaccessible areas of the plot, while it improves its connectivity to the surrounding neighborhood. Moreover, the hospital complex will feature an upgraded infrastructure network and an easy way-finding system. It will improve accessibility by moving the existing bus infrastructure, while adding a new Metro station in the middle of the hospital and a new Light Rail station right next to it. Existing roads will be improved and all infrastructure and operations will move underground, expanding all around underneath the hospital.
