CommonRoots Health Centre

Abstract

A shift in medical paradigm, from a focus on curing disease to a focus on preventing it, demands a totally new type of medical infrastructure. Through an analysis of the preventative paradigm, two key architectural implications of disease prevention are revealed: the need to reach out to the healthy population; and the system nature of preventative care, which links seemingly unrelated lifestyle factors to health. The site of the former Queen Elizabeth High School, on the Halifax peninsula in Halifax, Canada, is chosen as the site to explore the programmatic and spatial implications of preventative care. Through attention to the concepts of habitat and flow, a design is created which blurs the boundaries between building and landscape, between diverse programs, and between patient and passer-by.