AGHIA SOPHIA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

ATHENS, GREECE

As the several projects carried out were spaced out in time, the layout of the site Set on a site in the heart of Athens, the Aghia Sophia Hospital is the major children’s hospital of Greece and is traditionally deemed as the benchmark of medical care for children.

Our firm has, over a number of years, undertaken a number of projects within this hospital site – new buildings and also additions and conversions totaling 25225m². Such were the outpatients’ microbiology and hematology departments, heart surgery and intensive care units, first class wards, nurses’ training school and hostel, assessment centre for the disabled, as well as the central energy building.

The new buildings, be they additions or extensions, are characterised by their exposed concrete surfaces and the yellow window paneling. A large red cross engraved on the exposed concrete surface of the side façade and immediately visible as one enters the site, marks the new outpatients’ department. Bringing together into a unified aesthetic whole contemporary buildings with older structures, some even dating back to the beginning of the 20^th Century, was a design task that was successful to the extent feasible given the far greater building volume of the existing buildings.

On the interior surfaces of the new additions, colour has been used extensively as a tool to “lighten”, for the sake of children in particular, the unavoidably institutional ambience of a hospital environment. Bold primary colours, together with appropriately designed signage, were used in foyers and circulation areas of new and existing hospital areas alike, thus acting as aesthetically unifying elements.

necessitated, with each new phase, progressive modifications to vehicular and pedestrian flows and also to the landscaping. The site had a variety of large and smaller trees – mainly cypresses, pines and bitter orange – all planted many years ago and already grown to maturity. Landscaping was focused on preserving this flora making only limited additions to enhance the new modifications to buildings and site.