OMA explores the future of hospitals and the medical field at the Venice Biennale 2021

OMA explores the future of hospitals and the medical field at the Venice Biennale 2021
OMA / Reinier De Graaf have been invited to exhibit at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Titled “Hospital of the Future”, the installation explores how, after years of medical preparations and technological advancements, a pandemic may have hindered medical progress and killed the hospital as we know it, envisioning a new form of medical architecture.
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Individuals in the medical field have long worked to increase life expectancy and ensure continued good health for all. Improvements in sanitation, nutrition and medicine have allowed people to live well beyond 70, convincing some that the human race no longer needs to prepare for epidemics. However, COVID-19 made it clear that the people that medical advances had managed to keep alive were the ones who were victimized – “The chronicle suddenly became acute”.

For the exhibition, the team of architects and designers reimagined hospitals, based on their observations since the end of 2019. As the installation shows, the hospital of the future is a place where one does not will ever go, one who will act from a distance, and treat each patient individually. The hospitals of the future will be self-sufficient, in the same way that greenhouses produce their own harvest. The newly imagined spaces will allow automated machines to handle routine tasks instead of their staff, leaving the precision work in the hands of the devices.
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The hospital of the future will be in perpetual motion, like a theatre, transforming its space into events. If organs can be 3D printed, could the hospital be 3D printed? Using its waste as a resource, could it rebuild itself perpetually? If we revived ancient remedies for common ailments, could we grow exactly what the doctor ordered?
HOSPITAL OF THE FUTURE
OMA / REINIER DE GRAAF
- Partner in charge: Reinier de Graaf
- Concept: Hans Larsson, Alex Retegan
- Film: Adam Kouki, Magdalena Narkiewicz, Max ten Oever, Camille Filbien
- Exhibition design: Benedetta Gatti, Sofia Hosszufalussy, Elisa Versari
- Research: Yeliz Abdurahman, Anton Anikeev, Matthew Bovingdon-Downe, Serah Calitz, Niccolo’ Cesaris, Nuria Ribas Costa, Helena Gomes, Claire Jansen, Arnaud Latran, Lucas Piquemal, Anahita Tabrizi, Alex Tintea, Jonas Trittman, Santiago Palacio Villa, Yushang Zhang, Giada Zuan

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