Laundry Facility, Sheba

An industrial-grade laundry facility for the biggest hospital in Israel was chosen to be built on the hospitals new main entrance and adjacent to residential development. The brief included creating a facility that includes decontamination, sorting, washing, drying, folding, and packing, as well as support facilities for the staff. The site presented several challenges. Located adjacent to the new southern entrance to the hospital and within a landscaped park, the design needed to fit naturally within its surroundings. The former overflow pit for drainage water, on which the site was built, added to the complexity of the project. Furthermore, the limited public funds of the hospital meant we had to create a project that would accomplish the added benefit we were working for, without breaking the budget allotted for the project. Our main inspiration came from the site itself, as we used the site natural topography to position the service yard recessed from its surroundings, preserving the required functionality and accessibility without compromising the aesthetic of the site or the surrounding landscape. The proximity of facility to neighboring area in development, influenced our choice to seek and design a form for the building that will blend the roof and walls as one continuous cladded envelope.

The MEP systems were integrated within the roof and kept ventilated by louvers that follow the curve and angle of the roof. The facility includes many exhaust pipes and chimneys. These were seen as integral design elements and were positioned as balancing vertical elements to the projects overall horizontal approach. While the metal sheet cladding envelopes the walls and roof from north to south, the gables facing the entrance road and the park include round "bubble-like" windows. The materials used are generally concrete and metal sheet cladding, commonly used materials for industrial construction but given a unique form and color to give the building its identity. As a typical "back-yard" type of project, in a location that is becoming prominent and central at the new entrance to the hospital, we believe that by creating a building that while serving an operational purpose can be integrated in the landscape, we will be feeding into the hospital's vision of a fence-less campus, which is a "city of health."

Design Team EKateryna Yolkina, Meirav Cohen, Erez Bader, Omer Dellus-Neeman, Ori Rotem