Published on Archi.ru (https://archi.ru)

05.07.2011

Architecture of Animation

Anna Garanenko
Studio:
ASADOV architects

The Federal Research and Clinical Centre of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology was opened on the 1st of June in the south-west district in Moscow. It is a perfect example of therapeutic architecture – a childly simple and almost ad-optimistic cartoon-building

Designing the hospital for children with blood diseases, Alexander Asadov worked as Patch Adams, the world's most famous doctor-clown. Actually, he made no secret of that: "The architectural solution was suggested by the doctors, very concerned and creative people who have asked us to create a highly optimistic building, which would not resemble a grim hospital architecture", - explained the architect. Eventually the building is totally devoid of gloomy appearance. The authors efforts to hide its nature is striking in a literal sense – its colorfulness can upstage any circus. Extremely positive set of colors: green, orange, red, lilac ... A rainbow. Even its opaque black facade does not look gloomy due to bright panels, which like plashes of sunlight appear here and there, joining window into bright pairs. Those who remember TV-DOS version of Tetris computer game might catch some likeness: the bright blinks on the dark background form a chaotic, but meaningful pattern. The rhythm of the black façade is set by verticals of stairwells, which multicolor pylons divide it into three parts, concealing excessive length of the hospital building. The inner wall of the main building, fronting the courtyard, is white with color flashes. The courtyard facade resembles a white screen that catches the sunlight for the children playing games there. However, the hotel building for recovering children plays the major optimistic part - the authors call it the "tree of life". The "tree" emerging from behind the real trees in the small garden on Leninsky prospect is like very colorful like a bouquet of bright colors. On the plan with a little of imagination it can be easily compared with a child’s drawing. Black front long body is the ground, the transverse hospital passage is the stem, and the colorful building is the magic flower from an old cartoon. Here it is magical too: it is for recovering children who have experienced the magic. The symbolism is obvious: from the black to the white and the rainbow – to the hope growing out of the hospital building. A quite small complex exteriorly looks like a "bush" of fused and buildings highly elongated up on very long and colorful legs.

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