AMES
AMESCAPE
Chatterjee, Nagdive
The objective of this project was to provide a facility for an outpatient surgery service in the city of Ames through master planning of the whole site. The massing and positioning of the building have been carefully considered for optimum sun exposure and to allow room for future growth and expansion horizontally and vertically. Amescape is a destination of youthfulness and an example of modern design incorporation in the healthcare environment to elevate user satisfaction and to integrate the facility with the surrounding student community creating a strong architectural statement. Transparent curtain walls around the waiting area, consultation lounge, and staff lounge with a unique shading device and careful placement of skylights impart a meaningful architectural response to provide natural light into the interior. The placement of Pre-Post Recovery and all the lounges offering views facilitate a sense of connection to its recreational and empathetic landscape while an interior rock garden provides the same experience of positive distraction as well as daylight exposure within a contained green-house like setting to minimize infection. The specialty of this design is the flexible space (consultation lounge) to illustrate adaptability by converting the space with separate entrance and exit, when necessary, for a pandemic like situation.