Placemaker: Sustainable spaces
 The patient-centric focus of the new National Heart Centre (NHC) in Singapore is reflected in the ethos of its design, developed in a collaboration between Ong & Ong and Broadway Malyan. Drawn from a philosophy of “Placing People First”, the design concept encompasses the needs of the patient, the visitor and the staff.
The NHC’s most distinctive feature is its two fronts. The institutional front, which includes the main approach and houses the medical facilities, is quiet and formal. The garden front, at the other end, faces the garden deck in the Outram Campus Masterplan, and serves as the healing park and waiting area. The first and second storey will allow direct passage by the public from the institutional front to the garden deck, to promote integrated access to other facilities within the campus.
  
The new building also adopts various green building features, technologies and innovations to achieve better performance in energy efficiency, water usage, use of recycled and reusable materials, indoor environmental quality and environmental management. Examples include the passive solar strategy, which reduces heat emission and direct glare and sunlight into the building; and the use of environmental friendly building elements which are energy efficient in fabrication, self-cleansing and long-lasting.
 Intuitive wayfinding is a core feature of the design, with most facilities visible from the main reception, bringing ease and convenience to the patients and visitors. The rectilinear building form provides great fl exibility in space planning, reconfiguration of usage and ease of extension upwards and sideways.
The NHC has also set its sights on being a digital heart hospital, with the new building harnessing the latest information technology to improve the processes and outcomes of care. To enable its doctors to share knowledge across borders, the centre will adopt telemedicine with digital imaging capabilities to enhance productivity, patient safety and improve its empathy with the environment
Set to complete at the end of 2012, the 35,000m2,12-level building is set to become operational in early 2013. Associate Professor Koh Tian Hai, medical director, National Heart Centre Singapore said: “In designing the new NHC building, we considered every facet of the heart patient’s care and hospital experience, to deliver the best care possible while balancing cost and functional effectiveness.”
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