For Medical Centre Meander in Amersfoort, atelier PRO is designing a public underground parking garage for about 700 cars. According to our vision, this should be an optimal space for a traffic machine, in which people can perfectly orientate and feel safe, and in which optimal connections are provided with the activities that take place above it. In particular for a hospital, where the volume of traffic is huge for 24 hours a day. We have found a solution for this issue by designing the garage as a ‘terp’. Thus it forms the foundation of the hospital above.

Due to the low groundwater level, the building has been lifted up and the separate building blocks, with their roofed public spaces, have been built above the parking garage. For the ordnance, there is a passage around the garage through which the hospital can be provisioned. At the centre of the parking garage is a raising point with an escalator and elevator, from which the visitors directly enter the heart of the building. Part of the garage’s ‘roof’ has been executed as a covered pergola, which thus connects the hospital with the landscape. On the ground, a separate garage will be built for the personnel, where cars can remain for a longer period of time.

As the parking garage is situated on ground level under the building complex, it provides an easily accessible and perceptible entrance. Patients can be let off and picked up by taxis or relatives at the ‘kiss and ride’ zone, close to the central access in the heart of the public area. Using an escalator or elevator, these visitors enter the lifted ground floor in the ‘Laan’ (the central area), directly opposite the central information desk.

To be able to easily select the activities that take place above it, the garage has been executed with a so-called ‘column free module’. This module has an optimal (maximal) constructive span and offers much design freedom for the site plan of the activities that take place above it. Each module provides a free parking floor for 6 cars with sufficient room to manoeuvre.

Where possible, we bring daylight into the garage, which, together with special lighting, provides a comfortable and safe atmosphere. Colours are used as an extra means to give bearings. In addition, we offer extra space to the pedestrians by supplying these zones with a lighter floor finish. The walking routes are connected with pedestrian crossings and lead to the central raising point. Thus, there will be a clear distinction between the parking spaces, the roadway and the areas for pedestrians.

In the garage for Medical Centre Meander, robust and maintenance friendly materials will be used, just as in all other atelier PRO garages, to make sure that the garage will remain in a good state, even after a long period of time.