Patients and visitors make use of ‘unrecogniseable’ Aberdeen car park
October 25 2017
Funded by The Wood Foundation on the strict proviso that the facility should not be used by staff, contractors or anyone who is not a patient themselves or visiting a patient, the free car park will employ barrier access and automatic number plate recognition to enforce these limitations.
Located opposite the hospitals main entrance the JM Architects designed facility sits behind a modular skin of metal panels to reflect natural light, an approach said to make the structure ‘unrecognizable’ as a car park.
Construction began in October last year with the finished car park providing space for 1,000 vehicles.
A custom lighting scheme will illuminate the perforated metal canopy by night
A view of the hospital grounds from the car park's top level
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9 Comments
#1 Posted by Sir Ano on 25 Oct 2017 at 11:41 AM
Sorry, its still clearly a car park.
#2 Posted by basho on 25 Oct 2017 at 15:18 PM
Huge improvement - but why not cover the stairwell too?? Seems like a strange omission.
#3 Posted by CadMonkey on 25 Oct 2017 at 17:55 PM
Although it is obviously a multi storey car park (helped by the value engineering by omitting some of the cladding) is the concept of making the car park "unrecognizable" as a car park not flawed in that it detracts from visitors "wayfinding" and add to their stress levels, when all they want to do is park up?
Why not be honest and design it to look like a really good car park? Designer not up to it?
However with an eye on the bigger picture, rather than tarting up an old car park would the money not have been better spent on a new operating theatre?
Why not be honest and design it to look like a really good car park? Designer not up to it?
However with an eye on the bigger picture, rather than tarting up an old car park would the money not have been better spent on a new operating theatre?
#4 Posted by FitzHat on 26 Oct 2017 at 09:32 AM
@CadMonkey
"However with an eye on the bigger picture, rather than tarting up an old car park would the money not have been better spent on a new operating theatre?"
See the second paragraph of the article.
"However with an eye on the bigger picture, rather than tarting up an old car park would the money not have been better spent on a new operating theatre?"
See the second paragraph of the article.
#5 Posted by Monkeybasher on 26 Oct 2017 at 09:48 AM
CadMonkey obviously hasn't realised that this is a totally new car park and fulfills a long standing need that has clearly been called for by all patient and visitor groups
#6 Posted by Cadmonkey on 26 Oct 2017 at 11:15 AM
#5 No, I didn't realise this is a new building. There in lies the problem. It looks very much like an overclad refurbishment project.
Why has a quality architectural solution that is easily identifiable as a car park not been pursued? Is that too difficult?
Why has a quality architectural solution that is easily identifiable as a car park not been pursued? Is that too difficult?
#7 Posted by FitzHat on 27 Oct 2017 at 12:07 PM
@Cadmonkey
"No, I didn't realise this is a new building. There in lies the problem." Yes. The problem being that you commented before reading the article.
"No, I didn't realise this is a new building. There in lies the problem." Yes. The problem being that you commented before reading the article.
#8 Posted by UR on 27 Oct 2017 at 12:20 PM
It should be stressed that some of those photos were a little out-of-date. The stair cores are fully clad now.
#9 Posted by Jerry on 7 Nov 2017 at 20:37 PM
It may just be a car park, it may be unrecognisable as such, but it surely must be one of the most dreadful pieces of design in Scotland in recent years and should be a contender for plook on a plinth. The cladding is industrial grim. It takes the dominant grey theme of this city to a new level of dismalness. On a healthcare campus I would want architecture to lift the spirit- this (I pass it most days) make me want to give up
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