Machala General Hospital

The Machala General Hospital is the materialisation of a typological model developed at PMMT, the 'Fluid Hospital'. With 28,500 m2, it is located in the coastal city of Machala, in the province of El Oro, with a population of around 300,000 inhabitants. The planning of the facility arose from the need to provide the district and the surrounding areas with a first class hospital within a year. It is the typological example of the Fluid Hospital, which fits in with the needs of both the project and construction deadlines.

The new hospital is based on the repetitive idea of a large container, which is broken down through sequential integration of courtyards, separation of circuits (technical-patient) and differentiation of entrances: general, emergency, morgue, dialysis and supplies. The singularisation of these entrances and circuits, the relationship in plan and section and the rich play of roofs, transparencies and crossed views, guarantee the unity of the building as a whole. It maintains two determining criteria: a functional desire for diaphanous spaces, and a firm commitment to the 'segregation' demanded by the programme of all the functional units.