The Administration Building and New Entrance to the Careggi Hospital plays a strategic role both as an urban junction and as an architectural presence for the Hospital District and the city of Florence. Situated in the northern part of the complex, the building becomes the ‘gateway’ to the whole sanitary district.
Welcoming is the key word which addressed the design of the new facility and its role of access and, at the same time, “landing place” to the city of Healthcare in Florence.
The Administration Building provides services to the citizens, information, university and commercial facilities. Now all these services are centralized in the same system open to the city, a focusing point to welcome all kind of hospital users: patients, family members, students, and employees.
The pedestrian square, with the large covering held up by slim steel columns, and the glazed entrance area represent the heart of the complex. The design of this settlement shows that a hospital can no longer be considered as a closed and hostile place.
The New Entrance is not simply a door, is a place for strolling and meeting as well. It is representative of the complexity of the largest university hospital district in the centre of Italy: a new " square" and a new loggia for the city, inspired by the great urban tradition of the Florentine loggias.
The complex includes the administrative and health-care offices of the hospital, the university equipment, an entrance hall, and a parking area.
The large roof overtops, whether fully or partially, different buildings integrating them in a single organism.
A gradual spread of natural light is guaranteed by large and random openings that draw the surface at the meantime.
The building transcends its functional role as a kind of large-scale urban loggia, becoming a "signal " able to relate the heterogeneous volumes .
