Koc University Medical Sciences Campus

Concept design and medical planning for Koç University’s Medical Sciences Campus, located in Istanbul’s Topkapı district, was prepared in collaboration with Cannon Design. From the early stages of the project, in an effort to include campus users in all of the phases of the design process, forums were organized with representatives from different parties, including doctors, nurses, academics and hospital management. In addition to the concept design and medical planning, Kreatif Mimarlik also carried out the revisions that became necessary as the building code was altered following the completion of the first stage. Thanks to the efforts of Kreatif Mimarlik, the construction of the campus was completed on time.

The project is based on the idea of creating a spatial organization flexible enough to respond possible needs and requirements that may arise in the future, which is also innovative as a research centre for the medical industry. The project also seeks to encourage the integration and collaboration of different disciplines for a more successful medical education.  With all these included, the design also features international standards while embracing the sense of identity and place.

The spaces of academic education and professional application is carefully positioned as to provide a mutually supportive connection in the campus which consists of a medical faculty with research and training programs, a university hospital with a capacity of 440 inpatients, a nurse school, an advanced simulation center, high-security research labs, dormitories, social facilities and sports halls. Accordingly, the design is shaped to create a visual connection between the research and training block, and the hospital.

The continuity of the architectural language seen in the university’s Rumelifeneri campus is one of the crucial points of the concept design; which resulted in the use of modern forms and materials associated with traces of traditional architecture. The locations and proportions of the blocks were decided according to certain criteria, such as the size of the parcel, the required program, the maximum daylight in the patient rooms, ease of maintaining and cleaning works and energy conservation. 

The building consists of two rectangular blocks located on a narrow and long land. The southern block is designed lower and is distanced from the other one through the use of a curve in the form, which also helps to provide more natural light reaching to the atrium and the northern block. The opening between the high and elegant blocks creates an inviting entrance to the hospital. Meanwhile, the relationship of the whole campus with the ground level is harmonized through inviting the human factor, thanks to the terrace placed right on the hospital entrance.

The atriums used in the structural design are considered to be important architectural elements that ensure the integrity of the interiors and exteriors. As spaces that facilitate and strengthen the relations among the buildings’ components, the atriums also help the campus achieve its public mission to open towards the city and make the buildings more alluring. Moreover, the spaces at mezzanines and basement floors can have access to far more daylight because of the skylights placed in these open spaces.  Constituting the first stage of the project, the medical school and the hospital are the front side of this yard-type building system, while the nurse school, completed in the second stage, and future extensions such as dormitories, techno-park, social facilities and sports centres are located on the northern side. Due to the sudden changes in the building code that occurred while the construction in motion, the blocks in the second stage could not be built at the same height with the first-stage-blocks, as it had been previously planned. Therefore, a new spatial design was prepared since some of the functional programs proposed for the second stage were cancelled.  

Elaborating the comfort conditions for patients, students and academicians, spaces such as classrooms that do not lean on the facade, labs, patient and intensive care rooms, as well as the supportive units such as cafeteria, dining room and offices are all linked to an atrium in between the blocks, or are visually connected to the pocket gardens. Thanks to this spatial organization, all the places, particularly those on the ground level, can benefit from the natural light no matter how further deep they are located.

One of the main challenges of the project was linking the hospital’s separate circulation lines that never intersect with each other to other units. Different user profiles such as patients, students, academicians and visitors can walk in the building, encountering each other only at specific points. Service roads surrounding the campus and basement floors are designated for other circulation scenarios including the emergency entrance and exit, vehicle entrance for visitors, academician and student traffic, entrance for delivery and exit for medical waste.  

From day one, the main principle of the project was to make the architectural design free from the unnecessary items that could raise the cost of construction and maintenance. That is why long-lasting, easy-to-clean and low-maintenance materials and details were preferred throughout the complex. The design also avoids luxury in order to create a peaceful and unobtrusive architecture that would become a neutral but comfortable background for both patients and employees whose lives focus on recovery, education and research.