Khoo Teck Puat Hospital

Sustainability in building design rarely is applied to hospitals. As the design for hospitals are usually defined and standardised, it is a challenge to develop a new type of sustainable architecture. In Singapore, a hospital has tried to do just that called Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH). The design focuses its design elements on biophilic design as a concept throughout the building. A typical hospital is designed with a courtyard surrounded by a large building block. KTPH on the other hand is designed with a v-shaped configuration of its blocks opening to the north,  allowing breezes to come in that skim over an existing storm-water pond. For a development located in a dense urban setting, KTPH managed to achieve a green plot ratio of 3.92, which meant that the total surface area of horizontal and vertical greenery is almost four times the size of the land the hospital sits on. 40% of the hospital blue-green spaces are publicly accessible, which accounts to 18% of the hospitals floor area. To suit the local climate, indigenous tropical plant were chosen for ease of maintenance. By providing host plants and various habitats within the hospital grounds, the hospital becomes part of the larger ecosystem encompassing various green patches throughout the north of Singapore. Common areas of the hospital reduce the need for mechanical ventilation and energy consumption by optimising natural ventilation in the design. This reduction leads to approximately 60% of savings to the buildings energy consumption. This hospital is an example of sustainable architecture design that could be incorporated into standardised buildings such as hospitals in the future.