Wedged into a dense urban campus containing academic, research and healthcare components, the 12-story 41,880 m Advanced Treatment and Development Center will provide a new home for Seoul National University Hospitals most distinguished clinical programs, focused on cardiovascular and neurovascular disease, diabetes, advanced surgery and high-technology medical imaging. The facility includes three levels of underground parking and surgery suites and inpatient floors above, including VIP patient rooms. A principal design challenge for the project was the tight site, currently a surface parking lot surrounded by retaining walls amid various mixed-use urban buildings. The design takes advantage of the slope to provide discrete entrances for the distinct areas, with a VIP entrance at the higher end of the site, and an on-grade lobby at the lower, street end of the building to provide access to outpatient and diagnostic services. This competition-winning design employs a ribbon of care motif: the massing is two parallel linear bars containing patient rooms, connected by an articulated curvilinear circulation route, or “ribbon,” which visually and physically unites patients with caregivers. This ribbon unfurling along the roof makes a symbolic gesture of connection to the existing Seoul National University Hospital.
