Fluid Hospital in Machala

Machala, Ecuador

Photo © Sebastián Crespo / Bicubik

Hospitals

Architects: PMMT

Location: Machala, Ecuador
Year: 2017
Team: Maximià Torruella, Patricio Martínez, Àlex Herráez, Luis Gotor, Joana Cornudella

Machala Hospital is the materialization of a typological model developed in PMMT, the “Fluid Hospital.” At a size of 18.500m2, it is placed in the coastal city of Machala, in El Oro province. The province has approximately 300,000 inhabitants.
The planning of the equipment aims to provide a high-level hospital to the region and its surroundings, replacing the already existing one over the course of a year. A typological model, the Fluid Hospital, fills needs in terms of timing, project and work.
The new hospital stems from the conceptualization of a large container decomposed through a sequential insertion of courtyards, the separation of circuits (technical-patients) and differentiated entrances: general, emergency, morgue, dialysis and supplies. The singularization of these access points and circuits guarantees the unity of the complex by means of relating floors and sections, and a rich combination of roofs, transparencies and crossed views. It keeps two definite criteria: a functional aim for diaphanous spaces and a bet on segregation, following the demands of every functional unit’s program.