Stavros Niarchos Foundation Health Initiative Hospitals

Overview

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation's Global Health Initiative – which aims to improve the quality of care for all, in Greece and beyond – includes three new hospitals designed to deliver quality medical care to underserved areas around Greece. The SNF General Hospital of Komotini, the SNF University Pediatric Hospital of Thessaloniki and the SNF General Hospital of Sparta will collectively elevate inpatient and outpatient, pediatric and emergency services and establish a new standard in Greek public healthcare.

We are providing façade engineering to Renzo Piano Building Workshop for all three hospitals, the last of which is scheduled to open by late 2026. The foundation selected the architect to develop a sustainable hospital design that could be easily adapted to different sites and that could be built using local construction companies and locally available materials. Our team designed a timber façade system that supported these design goals and complemented a mass timber structural system. 

Highlights

• There is a focus on using sustainable, locally available materials as well as local construction industry and methods.
• Although there are some differences in scale, the three hospitals consist of two main volumes of multiple stories above ground level, with basement facilities and a central lobby area.
• The main facade typology, which is placed in front of the patient rooms, consist of a timber studs system with external rain screen timber cladding and window areas with interstitial blinds and external horizontal shading elements.
• The other locations are a combination of solid rendered walls, curtain wall stick system with aluminum or steel mullions and transoms according to the requirements of the architect.
• The facade engineering design follows local and European standards for healthcare projects and considers the criteria for fire classification, seismic conditions and hygiene requirements.
• The selection of timber as the structural frame material allows for a lighter building that responds well to seismic loads, reducing displacements and enabling façade joints to be minimally sized.
• However, using timber for a hospital facade presents special challenges such as meeting high national requirements for fire performance as well as providing good structural performance, durability, moisture resistance and thermal performance. Our team extensively researched options before deciding on Accoya and worked with local suppliers to ensure ease of procurement.
• The design meets applicable structural and thermal performance criteria and aims to be easily maintained and repeated for future hospital construction in other locations in Greece.