Health care in the Netherlands is generally delivered by independently employed doctors and privately owned nonprofit hospitals. It is not a system that is particularly innovative or different compared to other nations, yet it allows the creation of facilities such as this gorgeous new hospital in the Dutch town of Meppel, designed by Vakwerk, a practice set up in Delft by three former employees of Mecanoo: Ellen van der Wal, Francesco Veenstra, and Paul Ketelaars. The quality of the Isala Meppel hospital—everything from its considered placement in the wider landscape to the thick oak frames of its doorways—indicates that the Netherlands has a competitive health-care system whereby attractive, well-managed clinical environments can serve as a key draw for potential patients.
It is easier perhaps to design a hospital that is not foreboding if it is small, and this facility in Meppel is modest in size, with just 180 beds. (Isala, the client, runs a group of hospitals operating around a single large hub facility in the city of Zwolle, in the northeast of the country, providing specialist care.) The building is able to be the first all-electric hospital in the country, largely because it is extremely well insulated, uses both heat and cold storage in the earth, and is augmented by arrays of solar panels on the highest roofs.
You have 0 complimentary articles remaining.
Unlimited access + premium benefits for as low as $1.99/month.