Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School / RMJM

The RMJM designed Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School (Duke-NUS), the first collaboration of its kind in Singapore between two of the world’s top higher education institutions – Duke University in the U.S. and National University of Singapore – was opened yesterday, September 28th, by the country’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The new school building designed by international architects RMJM, will significantly boost the number of highly trained doctors in the country, demonstrating Singapore’s commitment to becoming a world leader in healthcare and biomedical research.

At 26,000 square meters and 11 stories tall, Duke-NUS is a “vertical campus,” housing research offices, wet and dry laboratories, classrooms, lecture halls, a library, student lounges, a café and administrative offices. The placement of the building’s functions and programs were designed to build the academic community and promote scientific collaboration. More description and images after the break.

The heartbeat of the building is the eight-story, glass central atrium, which ties the library and academic spaces on the ground level to principal investigators on the research floors above. The atrium promotes an ease of vertical circulation while promoting the most important goal: fostering collaboration on all levels between educators, principal investigators, post-doctoral candidates, research technicians and students. Students and faculty can have casual conversations in the comfortable public spaces while also enjoying glimpses and diagonal views throughout the hierarchy of the new open medical school.

The building, which achieved Green Mark certification, is designed to maintain a comfortable temperature in Singapore’s tropical climate. The exterior louvers and sunshades protect interior spaces while the building massing shades exterior courtyards. The ceramic tile used on the exterior contains titanium dioxide, a material that reduces the need for heavy maintenance, withstands mold in a tropical environment and is believed to reduce smog and pollutants in the air of urban environments.

Strategically located in the heart of Singapore’s General Hospital’s Campus at Outram, the new facility will enjoy a close relationship with SingHealth’s Singapore General Hospital, the tertiary-care teaching hospital associated with the Graduate Medical School.

RMJM has previously designed research buildings for Duke University in North Carolina, including the Medical Science Research Building II (MSRB-II), which has achieved LEED Silver certification. The company is also completing other major health and research facilities in Singapore with projects currently under construction at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and the acute general care Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.