Conversion of a Doctor’s Surgery

The doctor's house in Fulpmes was built around 1900 and, with its size and its combination of surgery, pharmacy, dwelling and garage, took on a distinctly urban character. In the following decades the house was altered and extended several times, inside and out; among these additions was an octagonal annexe to which the reception, waiting room and consulting rooms were moved out of the house. Arranging the consulting rooms around the core of the octagon avoids encounters between the doctor and waiting patients and optimises circulation. As the sanitary facilities urgently needed refurbishing and further infrastructure – such as a refuse room – had to be added, our office was commissioned to convert the surgery. The basic idea for the project was to combine fulfilling the brief with a redesign and aesthetic upgrading of the practice.

Period: 2009
Location: Fulpmes
Status: Completed
Type: Commercial & office, Interiors, Refurbishment
Client: Arztpraxis Somavilla
Brief: Conversion and extension of a doctor's surgery

As the sanitary facilities urgently needed refurbishing and further infrastructure – such as a refuse room – had to be added, our office was commissioned to convert the surgery. The basic idea for the project was to combine fulfilling the brief with a redesign and aesthetic upgrading of the practice.

The surgery is located in the centre of the small municipality of Fulpmes, which is strongly characterised by asphalt and stone, above all because of the tram line coming from Innsbruck. This gave rise to the basic idea of drawing nature into the design of the practice in order to create, by association, a positive mood for those visiting the doctor. Since the climatic conditions made planting on the car park impossible, a façade of green mesh (3M Safety Walk 1500) – in analogy to a hedge – takes the place of greenery. The artificial material veils the annexe housing the sanitary rooms, which becomes the defining architectural element.

When the interiors are lit at night, the suspended façade forms a translucent wall element that lights the car park in front of it. Depending on daylight and the various artificial lighting options inside, the translucency of the mesh creates an interplay of intimacy and extroversion in the new architecture. The whole area thus receives a new surface with clearly legible markings for the parking spaces, the emergency doctor’s bay and the patients‘ entrance.

The lightweight timber construction on a concrete floor slab allows a short construction period for the elongated rectangular annexe. The suspended façade is fixed to a steel substructure, with clamping rails at eaves and ground level stretching the 3M mesh – originally developed as dirt-trapping matting – in front of the building element.

The formal solution to the brief is bound by technical, legal and logistical requirements. The sanitary rooms – two WC units, one of them accessible – and the refuse room are reached from the surgery; the refuse room also needs access from outside. The rooms are small and arranged to save space so as to lose as little parking area as possible. With walls set at angles to one another and rounded corners in the sanitary rooms, the perception of the actual room size remains diffuse and ambiguous. The necessary fittings and services are built into the walls; the WC and washbasin remain the only free-standing elements. The entire interior is kept in white: white screed with chip aggregate for a slip-resistant floor, white wall surfaces and white sanitary fittings.

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