Decaf Hospital: 2024 Breaking Through Competition Winner
©SmithGroup 2024
Decaf Hospital’s glass atrium is a living, breathing part of the building that welcomes lush plants, fresh air, and sunlight into the patient experience.
©SmithGroup 2024
The concept is a haven of ecological healing both for the planet and the patients it serves, operating as a self-sustaining, closed- loop system.
©SmithGroup 2024
Patient rooms serve as the heart of each patient’s healing journey. Both high tech and abundant with greenery, each room can adapt to each patient’s unique needs.
©SmithGroup 2024
Serene healing gardens provide provide locally grown medicinal herbs and respite space for patients and staff.
©SmithGroup 2024
The built environment and natural surroundings converge in the form of a flower, with each petal serving a vital function. Clean infrastructure colocated on-site powers the facility and provides energy, water, and food resources to both patients and the surrounding community.
2024 Breaking Through Conceptual Design Competition
Designed to imagine and push the boundaries of what could be possible in healthcare design if none of the usual rules—regulations, deadlines, codes, and budgetary constraints—were in play, Healthcare Design’s fourth Breaking Through conceptual design competition took to the main stage at the 2024 Healthcare Design Conference + Expo in Indianapolis.
There, four finalist teams faced off to become the 2024 winner and take home the grand prize of $10,000. Those teams represented SmithGroup, HGA, Perkins&Will, and Gresham Smith. Each had 10 minutes to present their concepts live on stage—the last phase of a three-phase process that began earlier this year.
Prior to the finale, the teams first submitted concept statements that detailed a challenge they anticipated in the future delivery of healthcare and their proposed boundary-pushing solution for it.
From there, a jury of industry experts selected 13 concepts they felt held enough promise to move forward for further development; those semifinalists next prepared detail-rich presentations that dove more deeply into both the challenge and solutions. (Meet the semifinalists here.)
Then, during the finale at the HCD Conference, the four finalist teams presented their concepts to conference attendees, who voted in real time via text to determine the winner.
Here, Healthcare Design presents the 2024 winner—SmithGroup’s Decaf Hospital. Look for more coverage of the finalists coming soon.
Decaf Hospital: 2024 Breaking Through Winner
Image credit: ©SmithGroup 2024
Team: SmithGroup
On-stage presenters: Nuti Dave, architect; Cassidy Roberts, architect; Nate Savage, associate/senior architect
Concept design: Neil Abrams, associate, medical planner; Nuti Dave, architect; Farimah Raisali, architect; Cassidy Roberts, architect; Nate Savage, associate, architect; Siqi Zhu, landscape designer
Visualization design: Brian Donovan, senior graphic designer; Vince Jaramillo, associate, visualization specialist; Ginny Rice, visualization specialist; Abby Teibel, graphic designer; Travis Frangie, Evening Cue LLC
The premise: Climate change is a profound public health crisis. Heatwaves, poor air quality, and wildfires worsen chronic health issues, impacting the most vulnerable. Food and water supplies are threatened, and extreme weather events cause injuries and mental health problems.
Paradoxically, healthcare contributes significantly to this crisis, responsible for 10 percent of carbon emissions in the U.S. Renewable energy and sustainable practices are within reach, but a collective will is needed to implement them faster and on a large scale.
The concept: Decaf Hospital is a comprehensive ecosystem—both living laboratory and planet-healing machine—designed as a model for addressing the interconnected challenges of cost, equity, access, and quality of care in the context of climate change.
The concept is inspired by the decaffeination process, which uses carbon dioxide to extract unwanted compounds from coffee.
Here, a closed-loop system transforms waste into energy, nutrients, and new materials through a bioconversion process. Organic materials including tissues, blood, and other biologicals are broken down using anaerobic digestion, producing biogas or bio-oil. Furthermore, organic waste feeds composting systems, generating nutrient-rich soil for rooftop gardens and urban farms.
Vertical gardens, green walls, and lush courtyards act as living lungs, filtering pollutants and sequestering carbon. A solar-powered microgrid with battery storage produces more energy than is needed; excess energy is stored or shared with the grid, ensuring the hospital can withstand climate disasters while producing a steady revenue stream.
Image credit: ©SmithGroup 2024
The details: Designed to emulate the delicate coffee flower, the building features a centralized atrium with a lobby to serve as the center of all the systems and the campus. The structure’s leaves and petals house important functions, such as patient care, infrastructure, and greenspace.
For example, patient towers bloom out from the atrium providing patients with views across the campus. A terraced garden growing along the sloping landscape provides greenery. The modular petal configuration of the prototype is highly adaptive to different site configurations and climates.
Embodying the core tenet of healthcare, “First, Do No Harm,” Decaf Hospital is dedicated to the well-being and health of communities impacted by climate change.
The concept mitigates climate exposure for vulnerable populations by eliminating greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring food security, and providing reliable energy for the campus and community.
The model’s carbon sequestration and autonomous transit systems also improve healthcare access and address environmental inequities for populations least able to adapt to climate changes.
For more on Healthcare Design’s 2024 Breaking Through competition, read here.
Anne DiNardo is editor-in-chief of Healthcare Design. She can be reached at [email protected].
