The Mother and Child Hospital project in Al-Nahda, Dubai was a closed-invite only competition project. Total of three healthcare-architectural firms were invited to compete and the winner of the competition would be awarded the project with the scope of  full-stack design and build, including concept design, documentation and construction drawings, and site coordination. The project was of utmost importance, as the project budget and time alloted were ample to explore multitude of options. Within HKS Inc, Singapore and New Delhi office were involved with the design process. We decided on creating three options in total, one was headed by Singapore office and two were headed by New Delhi office.

I was incharge of creating the exterior form and facade design of both the options. My role also included, coordinating the building form with the site plan, making climate responsive facade, articulating 3D models and coordinating the final render shots with the subcontractor in China. After conducting the research and studying the client, we observed the client’s design preferences. We took the less-conventional approach of ‘Function follows form’ where we first designed the exterior form of the building and then fit the programs in the extracted floor plans. This meant I was the key driver of the design, and I learnt alot about managing bold design choices whilst staying within a pragmatic realm. We weaved a very soft and empathic narrative around our designs, relating to comfort and experience of a new mother.

We won the competition and the project was awarded to HKS Inc. The client selected the option which I designed. They specifically loved design choices like a facade with a thin skin wrapped around the building, that represents the blanket wrapped around the new born baby, which gives a sense of protected comforting feeling. Through this project we learnt the value of how we could benefit from doing the right research and using it in our design approach.