work has finally started on an ambitious £335m redevelopment of Merseyside’s largest hospital. And the ambition is not simply to tackle a building that has outstayed its usefulness; it is to make the whole city healthier and wealthier too. [...]

In place of the current “American suburban” model of a huge building and surrounding parking, it will return to a “European” model of a cluster of buildings with public spaces in between them [...]

“The centre will feel like a public square. — theguardian.com

The clinics here are simple, even handsome. Instead of constructing hermetic shields in the form of airtight, inflexible hospital buildings, the architects took advantage of Haiti’s Caribbean environment, exploiting island cross breezes to heal patients and aid caregivers.

It’s not clear yet how well the clinics will work. [...] If they turn out right, they could serve as relatively light-footed models for other struggling countries that lack resources for high-end Western-style hospitals. — nytimes.com

Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles partnered with the Department of Defense to build out the OR360, a new innovation center where doctors and military personnel can simulate hypothetical scenarios in order to simplify and streamline trauma care. [...]

Designed by CannonDesign, the nearly 10,000-square-foot space is the hospital’s answer to the big question of: How can you make trauma care, both in hospitals and in military situations, faster and more effective? — wired.com

For the better part of two years, Graves checked into hospitals and rehabilitation centers as a business traveler checks into hotels. [...]

While receiving his medical care, Graves was struck by the poor designs of hospitals, health care facilities and the chairs, tables and other devices used by patients. "If it's going to be this bad for everybody else in health care," he said, "I should do something about it." — money.usnews.com

...the Butaro center, in the northern part of the country, will be the first to offer comprehensive care — including diagnosis, chemotherapy, surgery, follow-up treatment, and palliative care. — Boston Globe

"The [Butaro] project has a high relevance, since it can be applied as a solution to similar regions with limited opportunities and high risks of infection. [...] Also remarkable is the excellent quality of the buildings that were built exclusively with local workers.” — Zumtobel Group Award

Mark Dery, reflecting on his recent life as a self-described ‘career patient’, implores hospital architects to collaborate with interior designers, psychologists and neuroscientists in order to eradicate forever the pain of ‘medical incarceration’. — australiandesignreview.com

Danish practice DEVE Architecture has shared with us their prequalified entry for the expansion competition of Copenhagen's Rigshospital. This hospital is the main hospital in Copenhagen and is the foremost treatment and teaching hospital in Denmark. The design is a collaborative proposal with fellow Scandinavian firms COWI A/S, WHITE Arkitekter A/S, LAND+ Landskabsarkitekter, Aps, and Lyngkilde A/S and was prequalified alongside 6 other international teams for this project. — bustler.net

The new Rush hospital is already a major success as a work of architecture and urban design. It reminds us that a hospital needs to be designed for two sets of clients: Those who use it and those who simply pass by. The best-designed hospitals heal scars in the cityscape as well as patients. We'll know next year if the new Rush does both. — Blair Kamin

Danish practice Henning Larsen Architects and the consortium consisting of the architecture companies Friis & Moltke and Brunsgaard & Laursen, the engineering companies NNE Pharmaplan and Orbicon Leif Hansen, the consulting company Norconsult and landscape architects SLA have won the competition for the extension of Herlev Hospital, just outside of Copenhagen. — Bustler