合理的な医療ゾーンと非合理的ではあるが豊かな空間の療養ゾーンのクリニック
茨城県つくば市にある産婦人科医院でなないろレディースクリニックの第３期の新館が２０１８年に建った。外来診察を行う「外来棟」と、お産・産後静養する「入院棟」から成る。外来棟も入院棟も患者ゾーンはすべて１階の平屋部分にあり、豊かな自然の外部環境とダイレクトに接続するように配置した。外来棟も入院棟も、医療的なゾーンは白い矩形の箱の中に機能性を重視しシンプルな合理的なデザインとして、そこに黒い勾配屋根の複数のキャビンがランダムに配置され小さい町の集落のようになっている。キャビンのランダムな配置と、医療ゾーンの間にはレンガ状のタイルの「ストリート」があり、屋外のレンガの「こみち」へと繋がる。
外来棟の待合室と入院棟の共用廊下にあたる「ストリート」は米松大断面の構造材の梁型を現し、壁面は天然杉板張りで、床材は屋外の「こみち」と同様のレンガ色のタイルで貼られる。屋外のレンガ色のこみちが貫入するように外来棟と入院棟の建物の内部に入り込み各機能的な空間を緩やかに繋いでくれる。
入院棟の黒い勾配屋根のキャビンは患者用の病室で、全室シャワー、トイレが設置され、家族も宿泊できる。キャビン内部は、開口部、天井、床材と天然素材の木材を使用し、配置計画や使用する素材など医院建築としては非合理的な面もあるが、画一的で閉鎖的な施設の中にいるような空間では無く、日常の延長のような開放的で豊かな町の中のお家にいるような空間を目指した。
また、この計画で求められたのは、今の完成された形の産院では無く、将来フレキシブルな対応できる建物であった。お産のスタイルと人々のライフスタイル、医療体制の変化、少子化や非常事態への対処などその時代によって産院に関する問題点も変化し、産院が必要とする空間も変化するだろうという予測のもと、敷地の余白を残し、変更、改装の起こり得る木造部分と耐震などを重要視したRC造部分を混合し、将来の変化にも対応して改築、増築できるように計画した。

“A clinic with a rationally designed medical zone and an irrational but rich treatment zone”
In 2018, the third building of the NANAIRO Ladies Clinic, the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, was opened. The facility consists of an “outpatient building” for outpatient consultation and an “inpatient building” for delivery and postnatal recovery. The patient zone of both the outpatient and inpatient buildings are located on the one-story portion and arranged to be directly connected to the rich natural environment. The medical zone of both the outpatient building and the inpatient building consists of a simple and rational white rectangular box design that emphasizes functionality. There are multiple cabins with black pitched roofs like a small village in a random formation. The randomly arranged cabins and the medical zone are connected with a “street” made of brick-like tiles extending to the outdoor brick “komichi (trail).”
The “street,” which is the common corridor between the waiting room of the outpatient building and the inpatient building, exposes structural beams made of large cross-laminated Douglas fir. The walls are finished with natural cedar boards, and brick tiles matching the outdoor trail are applied to the floor. The exterior brick-colored trail penetrates through the outpatient and inpatient building interior and gently connects the individual functional spaces.
The cabins with black pitched roofs in the inpatient unit are the patient’s rooms, and all rooms are equipped with showers and toilets so families can stay. The interior of the cabins, the windows, ceiling, and flooring, is finished with natural wood. Though the use of materials and the layout have irrational aspects as a medical facility, the aim was to create a sense of a house within the community extending from everyday life rather than being in a homogeneous and closed facility.
Moreover, flexibility compatible with future changes was required in the plan, not eternally fixed as a completed maternity hospital as it stands today. Based on the prediction that birthing styles and lifestyles will change, and accounting for countermeasures against issues reflecting each era, such as declining birthrates and emergencies, the spatial requirements of a maternity hospital are projected to change accordingly. To enable a flexible plan to reconstruct and expand in response to future changes, a margin of the site was left unused, and wooden structures that are flexible to change or refurbishment were combined with the RC structures with high resistance against earthquakes.