Balamand Hospital

M1 . June 2025

Hospitals are often designed around patients. This project questions that assumption.

Believing that the quality of care begins with those who provide it, the proposal prioritizes caregivers through intuitive planning, collaborative workspaces and restorative environments.

Year: June 2025
Level: Master 1
Discipline: Healthcare interior architecture
Focus: Caregiver-centred planning & wayfinding

Diagram of staff and patient icons with green and red auras, showing how a supported caregiver changes the patient’s experience

Rather than treating the hospital as a collection of isolated departments, related functions are reorganized into interconnected clusters around shared waiting hubs, reducing fragmentation and long corridors, simplifying circulation and encouraging interaction between staff.

Three-step diagram: isolated paired rooms become connected rooms, then shared clusters

Oblique geometries generate a fluid spatial composition, transforming residual areas into integrated gardens and waiting spaces.

Three-step diagram: a rigid grid of rooms along a corridor is skewed into oblique clusters, leaving planted gardens in the gaps

Ground floor plan of Balamand Hospital with colour-coded departments, the curved entrance forecourt and auditorium — Ground floor

First floor plan of the clinics: clusters of consultation rooms in pink, blue and green around shared waiting hubs and planted courtyards — First floor · clinics

Longitudinal section AA through the eight levels of the hospital, with colour accents marking each department — Section AA

A restrained monochromatic material palette is punctuated by a subtle colour-coded architectural language, allowing each department to be identified intuitively through carefully placed architectural elements, rather than excessive signage.

Cross section BB through the hospital tower showing patient rooms with green accents above the public ground floor — Section BB

This material palette merges different white materials such as terrazzo, concrete, microcement finish, wood, aluminum, textured fabrics, and ceramic surfaces. It creates a calm and tactile foundation where texture takes precedence over colour.

Carefully placed accents like red grout lines, a blue lighting fixture, a green handle, and subtle coloured speckles introduce the identity of the spaces and functions, and help with circulation and way-finding.