Masters students visit the new inpatient ward at Cittadella Hospital

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the ULSS6 Euganea Local Health Authority for hosting the students of the Master’s in Architecture and Health for an intense and memorable day, thanks to the experience gained on the construction site of the new Inpatient Ward at Cittadella Hospital. The theme was structural prefabrication, which, in this unique project by Luisa Fontana LFA, has largely resolved the challenges of a complex building. Its form stems from the concept of a dynamic, enveloping space and movement flows that help patients feel active rather than passive, and ensure the hospital does not feel like a hospital.

Mr De Stefani’s lecture and the presentations by Mr Bernkopf, Mr Finotti, Mr Ometto and Mr Petri together helped to explain to the students how a construction firm ready to take on the challenge (Consorzio Innova), supported by a specialist company at the cutting edge of structural industrialisation (Tecnostrutture), and a project management team up to the task (Manens), can make all the difference in the completion of a project. Above all, they helped the students understand just how complicated it is to stay on track with a project that could easily have been distorted. All this thanks to an enlightened and forward-thinking contracting authority that has undermined the belief that the public is oblivious to beauty and values.

The synergy between the contracting authority, businesses and universities raises the bar in terms of quality: learning on the job not only transfers immediate knowledge and deep-rooted experience, but also instils the passion that drives our work – a passion that will turn today’s students into the well-prepared, sensitive and attentive designers and project managers of tomorrow.