Living Health Clinic primary care centre is a community based medical initiative. Not only has this building consolidated and organised GP services within the town, it has extended complementary services of HSE services, health community meeting facility, pharmacy, a café, a gym, a dentist and a physiotherapist, catering for the population of Mitchelstown and its greater surrounding environs. The approach view from Cork allows the building to sit within the backdrop of the Galtee Mountains, ensuring the building is rooted into the site through comprehensive landscaping and retention of existing landscape features.
Architecture
Following the course of the contours, the brief and future site considerations, generates the building form. Structured master planning of the site has allowed the building to comfortably sit within a present ‘Greenfield’ setting while allowing possible future expansion of this Medical Campus.
Through the use of a palette of contemporary design materials and thorough detailing, the building provides a crisp, practical and clear vision for the medical facilities provided. The central glazed atrium, which acts as focus for the main entrance, connects the two wings of the building and provides the vertical circulation and good orientation for the patients.
This element gives considerable controlled daylight penetration into a social space that accommodates an informal café and gathering space for patients along with a pleasant focus for overlooking patient waiting areas. Too often we are confronted with a reductionism and myopic vision of healthcare in Ireland.
This building was a coming together of a practical and visionary team using rigorous analysis and precise execution of a tightly contained budget and brief to the benefit of all. It can be seen as a clear indication of a careful and considered building that gives greatly back to the community it serves.