T
African project
New National Cancer Institute – Egypt
he facility will allow the institute to deliver life-changing services
to 1.7 million patients from all economic strata per year. It will also
serve as an international nexus of cancer research, education, and
discourse, enabling NCI to train new generations of practitioners
and convene experts from around the world. “This project is an
exceptional opportunity to contribute to the National Cancer
Institutes’ bold vision,” stated Mustafa K. Abadan, SOM Design
Partner. “Our design of the campus reflects the institutes’
confidence that scientific discoveries can be made and lives
changed by the interdisciplinary work taking place within its
walls.” Construction is scheduled to commence by the end of 2015. The project
is targeting LEED Gold and is designed to U.S. medical planning standards.
When complete, the New National Cancer Institute will combine a 1 000-bed
teaching hospital with an extensive outpatient centre. The campus will also
include research, training, faculty, conference, its own specialized nursing
institute, as well as a hotel and housing for both
residents and students. SOM has envisioned
the campus as a true community of caregivers,
scientists, educators, and students, and its design
unites the disciplines in the common cause of
curing cancer for all.
The New National Cancer Institute will be
located on a gently sloping, 35-acre site in Giza’s
Sheikh Zayed City, situated approximately
17 miles west of central Cairo. In conceiving
the campus, SOM considered the client’s
multifaceted vision, phasing flexibility, and the
region’s climate simultaneously. The result is
a unified system of functional modules (i.e. in-
patient, out-patient, and research) organized
among landscaped courtyards and connected by
discrete visitor and staff circulation spines. These
circulation spines also provide patients, visitors,
and staff with access to a network of amenities
that includes cafes, lounges, prayer rooms,
retail, pediatric activity areas, and daycare. Staff
circulation deserves special note, as this corridor
efficiently traverses the entire campus while
fostering informal and spontaneous interactions
between colleagues and students: It exemplifies
the overall organization system’s goal of creating
both authentic cohesion and orderly separation
for the campus.
The centrepiece of the new campus is its paired
in-patient and out-patient components, which
total four million square feet. SOM divided the
large in-patient hospital into six modules.
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