San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects

San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Exterior Photography, FacadeSan Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade, CityscapeSan Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Interior PhotographySan Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Interior Photography, WindowsSan Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - More Images+ 31

Milan, Italy
  • Leading Project Architect: Marco Dell’Agli
  • Design Team: Giulio Desiderio, Michele Olivieri, Emanuele Dionig, Martina Buccitti, Alberto Menozzi, Laura Mancini
  • General Contractor : Itinera SpA
  • City: Milan
  • Country: Italy
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San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Exterior Photography, Facade
© Duccio Malagamba

An inherently humane response to designing an energy-conscious hospital environment. San Raffaele Hospital is an internationally celebrated model for bringing together scientific research, teaching, and clinical activities to create a highly specialized emergency room (ER) in Milan and a pioneering 284-bed inpatient care facility of national importance in Italy.

San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade, Cityscape
© Duccio Malagamba
San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Image 32 of 36
Site Plan
San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade, Cityscape
© Duccio Malagamba

The university hospital’s new 10-story building designed by Mario Cucinella Architects is part of a medical complex located on the edge of Milan city-centre. Existing buildings date from the 1970s and 1980s and range greatly in their architecture. There was thus a need to create a more coherent urban realm for this densely built-up site.

San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Exterior Photography, Facade
© Duccio Malagamba
San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Exterior Photography
© Duccio Malagamba

Mario Cucinella Architects opted for a building that introduces a sense of calm with its white curtain-walled ethereal appearance. It plays with daylight and illuminates beautifully at night through its harmonious glazed elevations that are rhythmically punctuated with ceramic fins over 5 stories. 

San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Exterior Photography
© Duccio Malagamba

The base of San Raffaele Hospital is built with earthen-colored tiles to create a podium that grounds the levels towering above.  This single-story base houses the ER – the largest in the country - as well as a surgical block with 20 operating theatres below ground level including two of the latest generation neurosurgery units. 

San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Interior Photography
© Duccio Malagamba
San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Image 35 of 36
Section
San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Exterior Photography
© Duccio Malagamba

The louvered facades of San Raffaele Hospital are a key consideration in reducing heat gains by diffusing the impact of direct sunlight. The ceramic louvers vary in their depth in a way that responds to the path of the sun. The ceramic has also been specially conceived to disintegrate smog particles and preserve heat, cutting energy consumption by 60%.

San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Image 23 of 36
© Duccio Malagamba
San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Interior Photography, Dining room, Table, Windows, Chair
© Duccio Malagamba
San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Interior Photography, Windows
© Duccio Malagamba

And although not immediately apparent to the eye some 60% of the elevations are, in fact, made up of opaque insulation panels that improve the energy performance of the building’s envelope.  The opaque part is made of back-painted glass with an insulating back. The transparent parts have a screen print on top for privacy and shade. 

San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Interior Photography, Kitchen
© Duccio Malagamba

San Raffaele has been nicknamed "Iceberg" for its perhaps cool appearance within a challenging site that is visually restless and hectic by its very nature.  The nickname or metaphor works well with the subtly organic shape of the new building.  Its gently curved sail-like elevations compress and expand to express how it fits into its surrounding urban landscape.  The welcoming and comfort of patients have been paramount in the way San Raffaele Hospital has been conceived as well as the efficiency and discreteness of its clinical operations.

San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Exterior Photography, Beam, Steel, Handrail
© Duccio Malagamba
San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Exterior Photography, Facade
© Duccio Malagamba

As Mario Cucinella says, „We worked with the clear intention of creating a well-designed building that would greatly improve comfort. A building that needed very little energy for heating, retaining heat, and generating little thermal gain required very little cooling. San Raffaele’s new Surgical and Emergency Department is certainly one of the projects that best illustrate the studio’s commitment to sustainability. Its iconic facade is a clear symbol of this.”

San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects - Exterior Photography, Facade, Windows
© Duccio Malagamba

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Project location

Address:Milan, Metropolitan City of Milan, Italy

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "San Raffaele Hospital / Mario Cucinella Architects" 10 May 2022. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/981657/san-raffaele-hospital-mario-cucinella-architects> ISSN 0719-8884

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