Emergency Medical Service

The administrative-technical building of the Emergency Medical Service will be the primary base for all Prague emergency medical service groups, so the topic of “communication” is a key part of our proposal. Whether it is virtual, operational or interpersonal communication, in all cases it has the potential to save lives. A safe, smart and efficient organization of the house has therefore become an essential prerequisite of the design. The answer lies in the spiral motif that ascends through the various safety levels of the program, forming the basic backbone for the organization of the entire house.

The proposed building reacts sensitively to the loose development of the surrounding modernist housing estate, its mass distribution interprets the neighbouring polyclinic and respects the positions of the planned houses in the neighbourhood. The form of the house generates four outdoor courtyards around it, along which a spiral of car traffic revolves. This descends through the different security levels towards the most guarded parts of the traffic services department. The car transport spiral rotates around a pedestal that serves as a support for the exit groups and as an operational and technological base for the whole area. On top of it sits the elevated part of the building, made up of four distinct masses. Their layout is based on the requirements of the building program for the division into individual functional units.

The lowest volume, just off the foreground public area, serves as a staff park house with an emergency ambulance base on the ground floor. This part of the building is also designed to be as flexible as possible and convertible into another function in the future. The second volume, defining the entrance forecourt, is the simulation centre building. It is joined at the rear by the education, training and canteen facilities object, which also encloses a green courtyard. The last, fourth, volume consists of the administrative tower with the Prague medical rescue centre headquarters and the medical operations centre at the very top. This division of the building masses leaves space for the future nursing home and creates a dominant administrative tower with a transmitter situated towards the large capacity Liberecká Street.

The distinctive space is then the central meeting point of all these four masses. In their projection, the space of the inner atrium is created, serving as the central communication space of the building. Although this space is as open as possible to visual contact and mutual communication, it still strictly adheres to the safety rules defined by the complex operation of the building. Just as the car traffic rotates, the internal spaces of the house also climb up the “safety” spiral. Thus, the atrium is situated on platforms, each defined by a different level of accessibility, which gradually ascend the “security” spiral to the most guarded parts of the building and the administration.

At the very top of the tower is the most important part of the project – the Medical Operations Centre. It is here that employees work 24/7, constantly exposed to challenging crisis situations – their goal is to save lives. A relaxing winter garden with views of the distant surroundings is located directly next to the Operation Centre hall.

Emergency Medical Service

credits

project: Building for the Prague Emergency Medical Service
location: Prague
team: Natálie Hodková, Jan Bureš, Daniel Struhařík,
Ondřej Machač, Václav Centner, Georgi Dimitrov,
Radek Zabloudil, Markéta Čermáková, Jan Urbášek,
Šimon Klein, Vojtěch Heralecký
status: completed competition, finalist design
topics: administrative and technical building, Emergency
Medical Service, spiral of safety, communication,
working with urban model
images: willbe studio
based on: international competition, finalist design

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