National University Centre for Oral Health (NUCOH)
A dual-purpose 11-storey building serving as both a dental hospital and school, this project's uniqueness stems from its joint ownership by two distinct entities.
National University of Singapore E7
A state-of-the-art research facility that houses engineering and medical labs as well as break-out spaces and classrooms, making it a one-stop incubator where people across disciplines can collaborate to deliver innovative medical technologies.
Who
is NUH?
NUH (National University Hospital) is the largest public hospital in Singapore that provides comprehensive care services. It also acts as an academic medical center – which includes clinical research and training – for National University of Singapore (NUS).
The NUCOH building is partially owned and operated by NUH and its governing bodies.
Who
is NUS?
NUS (National University of Singapore), as the name suggests, is a national public and research university in Singapore. They offer vast programs at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
The NUCOH building is partially owned by NUS to train and prepare students in their dentistry program.
The E7 biomedical building is owned by NUS for biomedical engineering researchers and PhD students.
Who
is architects61?
Company
Founded in 1974, this mid-sized Singaporean architecture firm offering services in project management and design. Their projects span across categories from high-density residential, commercial high rises, to healthcare and education, amongst others.
Team NUCOH
Gieto Sugianto Principal Architect
Wen Chuen Ooi Principal Project Manager
Darwin Uriarte Senior Project Manager
Christie Lee Wayfinding Project Manager
Peter Tan Site Coordinator
Team NUS E7
Gieto Sugianto Principal Architect
Filippo Pesce Senior Architect
Hyo Sun Lee Senior Project Manager
Laurence Angeles Facade Designer
Christie Lee Designer & Lab Project Manager
What
does NUCOH look like?
Define
What's the problem?
NUCOH
My role was to coordinate between the client, contractor and designer.
Through collaborations between the client, signage designer and I, the locations of the signs were proposed and approved for installation.
However, during the mock-up stage, it became evident that there were many valid concerns coming from the users.
NUS E7
One of my roles was to coordinate between our lab consultant and the clients for the space planning of the labs.
The preliminary layouts were approved by the client but as the project went on, there were user turnovers, resulting in evolved needs. This led to a lot of confusion and disagreements on the initial spatial design.
My new goal was to sit down with the new users to finalize their new needs.
When working on public projects in Singapore, clients often restrict architects' direct interaction with users to prevent miscommunication and manage contracted work more efficiently.
Due to this restriction, we overlooked the importance of engaging with users directly, leaving that task to the clients. This oversight led to dissatisfaction among users who had either outgrown the initial design or whose needs had changed late in the project. We were then challenged to amend the design as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.
How
Our methodology
For both projects, we mainly utilized co-design methods with the users and stakeholders as well as mock ups to achieve the amended spatial designs.
NUCOH
Concerns
👀 Visual accessibility - Are the language, color, and size of the wayfinding adequate for the mostly-senior demographic?
🚦 Wayfinding flow - Current wayfinding locations are not intuitive.
Solutions
🪧 Paper mock ups - Full-scale paper mockups across two floors, one managed by NUH and the other by NUS.
🚶🏻🚶🏻♀️ Walk through - Conducted comprehensive walkthroughs with three groups of volunteer patients (8-10 per group) and stakeholders across both floors.
✍🏼 Observe & feedback - We observed, interviewed, and brainstormed solutions with users and stakeholders.
NUS E7
Concerns
👩🏻🔬 Lab layouts - Due to multiple user turnovers over the project's 4 year span, needs and requirements evolved, resulting in the provided layouts becoming invalid.
Solutions
🫱🏽🫲🏼 Co-design sessions - Conducted several weeks of extensive co-design sessions with all departmental users and stakeholders, thoroughly reviewing each relevant space and sketching various layouts while discussing necessary lab equipment.
🔬 Equipment verification - Given labs' stringent requirements for sizing, power sources, and finishes, we conducted walkthroughs of the researchers' current spaces, cataloging every piece of equipment to be moved to the new facility.