floors and the first clinical floor on the ninth
floor, optimal lift communication throughout the
building had to be ensured.
• A problem that occurred in the old hospital was
that once on the parking floors, any person
could enter the hospital without passing through
security. This problem was dealt with in the new
design through the implementation of two banks
of lifts, one for parking and one for the hospital,
which forces visitors to access the hospital via
the main entrance lobby. Special access control
is however being incorporated to allow direct
access by doctors from the parking floors into
the hospital.
• Vertical circulation inside the hospital is done
through the centre core, which provides for
parking lifts, bed lifts, equipment lifts and stairs.
Christiaan Barnard
Design Features
The strict ward dimensions required of the
Department of Health regulations meant that two
long wings of floor area, linked by the main lift core,
were favoured by Netcare, ultimately resulting in
the ‘H’ shape of the upper levels. This helped
break down the scale of the building, which is
basically bulky in nature, due largely to the Town
Planning parameters.
Façade
The arrangement of the various zones within
the building can be seen expressed in the
treatment of the façades. In particular, the upper
levels are contained behind a sophisticated
double façade system, which hides the irregular
sized windows typical of a hospital behind a
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