On the way to surgery, the young patients are carried through the 160-meter-long connecting bridge. This is a special experience: The patients witness an enchanting play of colors. The steel construction - covered with colored glass panels - is hardly visible. The interior has a light finish. Thanks to this execution, the experience is maximized: it is as if patients go through a rainbow.
Photography: Ronald Tilleman, Sybren Lempsink
Function:
Connecting bridge between the two hospitals
Client:
Board of the Princess Máxima Center
Location:
Utrecht
The connecting bridge meanders between the second floor of the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology and the Wilhelmina Children's Hospital. The connecting bridge does not only function as a link between the operating rooms in the hospital and the care departments in the pediatric oncology center, but also makes air-tube mail distribution possible between the laboratories of both institutions. In these ways, both hospitals are able to use each other’s facilities optimally.
The meandering form has been deliberately chosen for the connecting bridge. The distance to be bridged appears to be smaller. The meandering form, together with colored glass panels, give the bridge a human size and rhythm. The architecture manifests itself optimally here. The ceiling seems to float. Disturbing elements, such as installations, are concealed in the steel construction. The connecting bridge, which runs among others over a tramway, is supported by a minimal number of slender pillars. In this way the traffic flows beneath are not hindered.
Landscape architect:
Bureau BplusB
