Photography:Toshinori Sasaki (Ca' D'oro Ltd.)

This facility is the result of the relocation/rebuild project for this 586 bed hospital covering the Akita South area. The orientation of the wards in this hospital spreads out in a fan shape configuration to take best advantage of the view of Mt. Chokai. The wards on the curved edge of the building consist of private-style 4-bed rooms while the wards on the straight edge consist of private 1-bed rooms. In view of this heavy snowfall area, this ward configuration is designed to allow sunlight to enter all rooms at least once a day, and the fan-shape allows corridors to be shorter than the actual peripheral length of the wards and also serves to improve area efficiency. Continuing from the main entrance, the design incorporates a large spacious hospital plaza in the interior section and an inner light court in the outer section in a successive arrangement symbolizing the identity of the hospital and creating an easy-to-understand overall configuration. The hospital plaza is designed to double as a triage center in times of disaster.