The Project
A modern conception of the scientific character of a Cancer Treatment centre includes functions such as basic biological research, technological experimental activities for the diagnosis of neo-plastic diseases and above all, experimentation in advanced surgical techniques for cancer treatment.
The building structure, designed to house such advanced and complex functions, concentrates on a rational arrangement of the areas for diagnostic-therapeutic activities and research laboratories, rather than on extensive bed-spaces for in-patients, which are based on a rapid turn-over of patients using the services provided by medical surgeries, day service and the day hospital and on permitting the long-term application of experimental treatments.
When extending and restructuring the CRO, Politecnica’s design sought to achieve complex functional re-organisation particularly at those levels involving a series of accesses to departments, such as outpatient surgeries, follow-up services and the day hospital. The complex re-organisation also took account of the need to ensure simple routes to the related destinations, which are easily identifiable and sufficiently compatible with the physical characteristics of the users, who may also include children, and are normally physically debilitated and often elderly.
In order to deal with the expansion and integration of the different departments, it was necessary to re-examine the spaces used for the flows of staff, users and, above all, of the services provided by the day hospital, day services and the other highly complex assistance activities during the different stages of the design and direction of the works, in such a way as to ensure they satisfied the related needs while remaining compatible with the rational arrangement of the activities described previously.