Winner  of AIA's National Healthcare Design Award in the category dedicated to built projects, less than $25 million (construction cost)

Considered to be the first facility designed solely for the combined practice of alternative treatments and conventional medicine, both facility and grounds express DIM’s mission: to approach healthcare as a holistic endeavor that embraces the mind, body, and spirit.

Winner  of AIA's National Healthcare Design Award in the category dedicated to built projects, less than $25 million (construction cost)

This project is an addition to and renovation of an existing building that suffered from limited floor-to-floor heights, scarce natural light and poor air circulation. The design team responded by creating an open, light-filled environment for medical/radiation oncology, imaging, and breast health services.

Architecture firm Peter Rose + Partners has completed the Kripalu Annex, the first step in the firm’s master plan to reshape the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. The project received the AIA National Housing Award in the category of Specialized Housing.

Tucked into 300 acres of dense forest in the Berkshire Mountains, Kripalu (kri-PAH-loo) is the largest and most established yoga retreat in North America. For over 30 years, Kripalu has been teaching skills for optimal living through experiential education for mind, body, and spirit, and this holistic approach was the starting point for the innovative plan that secured Peter Rose the Kripalu commission in 2004.

Photos: Matthew Snyder

According to Rose, “Kripalu’s housing needs are modest and straightforward, but the architecture of the Annex, like yoga itself, is full of subtlety and layers of complexity that gently improve the structure’s performance. Light, air, using minimal means to create a calm, healing environment—it’s all about fulfilling these almost intangible requirements.”

The Biochemistry Department at Oxford University is the largest in the UK and internationally renowned for research work in DNA, cell growth and immunity. The building achieves a new ethos of “interdisciplinary working” where the exchange of ideas is promoted in a large collective and connective environment. At the same time researchers have the space to concentrate on intense work in highly serviced laboratories.

The new building designed by Hawkins\Brown deliberately challenges public perceptions of the secretive nature of research. Elevations are transparent with research spaces brought to the external face, making a political point about the value and integrity of biomedical research.

Challenging accepted norms in health care design, this new greenfield facility responds to the highly emotional reality of what really happens in a hospital. TBRHSC affirms a growing belief in the value of designing for the body, the mind and also the spirit.

The most prominent feature is the means through which the hospital draws on its context and makes tangible references to the natural surroundings. It is the first hospital in Canada to gain approval for the use of wood as a primary structural element.

The dramatic three-storey interior space flooded with natural light serves to acknowledge the spiritual dimension of human life. The welcoming glass concourse intentionally curves to follow the path of the sun and functions as a central circulation and gathering space with a lively café. Conceived as a path through a forest, the timber structure is also rooted in the history and culture of the area.

The project is located within roughly 20 acres of generally flat agricultural land bound by a railroad to the southeast, a major roadway to the south west and similar farmland on the remaining sides. There are no significant geographical or other manmade features on or near the site.



The Venice-Mestre Hospital is a general care hospital with 680 patient care beds. It also boasts an emergency care center and advanced surgical facilities. It is the result of a turnkey competition awarded to Astaldi, one of Italy’s two largest developers. This scheme won over a more conventional design because it was understood that a hospital should be conceived as part of the healing process.

Photographer: Enrico Cano