Isala Hospital, Zwolle
Designed by Alberts & Van Huut in collaboration with aan de Amstel architecten, the Isala Hospital (opened in 2013 by our Queen Maxima) provides the new premises for two merging Zwolle (Holland) based hospitals. The design of a hospital starts with solving a very complex puzzle with a large number of variables. Logistics and the necessary relation between hospital functions lead to a scheme of designated areas, that are then slowly frozen into a set design. During the conception of the Isala hospital scheme, parallel to talking about functions, the focus was from the start on how to experience the future building. Leading were questions like: How does a patient feel when he enters a hospital, what is needed to accommodate tranquillity and rest for a patient to deal with medical suffering? Can a corridor be more than just a corridor? How can we make an environment in which it is a pleasure to work?

Greenery would not be used to just fill areas that would otherwise had been been left empty, but would become an essential part of the building design. The main corridor connecting the four building blocks (butterflies) would become a street with trees and benches, to wait, to sit down after a visit of a treated relative, to gather beforehand, or to just take some time to look out into the garden with flowers and birds.
On the outside, the hospital shows itself as a rich and colorful building, not initially as a hospital. Windows seem to be accidentally placed but in fact neatly composed. The window frames in colours of the rainbow in combination with a number of different materials do not give the building one colour: the building becomes colour.