John McAslan + Partners' Indian nursing institute starts on site

Nov. 9, 2010 - PRLog -- John McAslan + Partners’ Indian nursing institute starts on site

Work has started on John McAslan + Partners’ design for the Indian Institute of Advanced Nursing (IIAN) in Chennai, India. The pioneering, highly-sustainable educational facility, for the Clinton Health Access Initiative, will create a new school to educate nurses with specialised training in HIV prevention and care, harnessing John McAslan + Partners’ considerable experience in delivering transformational projects within neglected communities.

The new campus, set in a five acre site to the south-west of Chennai, will become a hub for healthcare teaching in the region, providing world class teaching and student accommodation.  The project will have a substantial impact on the nursing and treatment of HIV/AIDS patients across the world; the Clinton Health Access Initiative has estimated that the facility will be able to train 15,000 nurses in the next two years and the facility will be integral in treating the 2.31 million people living with HIV in India. The project is the first of its kind in the country.

The design draws upon John McAslan + Partners’ experience of working internationally with local tradespeople and materials to deliver a project that remains sensitive to the site’s context and heritage, whilst providing support to ensure the best ideas from around the world are integrated into the product. For example, the site’s extensive landscaping, also designed by JMP, will provide a green setting for the institute. This will be rich in biodiversity, particularly indigenous species in keeping with the project's exemplary sustainable ambitions, whilst also providing a highly usable amenity space for the students and staff. This approach also addresses the site’s significant drainage issues during the monsoons, while limiting otherwise expensive land fill requirements.

The campus, due to complete in 2012, consists of two buildings, one dedicated to teaching (The Institute) and the other to student accommodation (The Hostel). Both buildings within the campus have been kept simple and robust, limiting capital costs through straightforward, local construction systems. John McAslan + Partners’ design for the IIAN is underpinned by a rigorous approach to sustainability, creating highly efficient buildings that raise the bar for “green” design in the region.

Responding to the humid local climatic conditions, the project implements passive design strategies to regulate internal conditions and create comfortable working and residential spaces.  The two main buildings incorporate a heavy external skin and make use of reflective materials that protect the internal environments from receiving direct solar gain.  

The buildings have also been orientated along the east-west axis, allowing the south and north sides to be shaded effectively.  

The landscaping will connect the campus with the local community, whilst promoting the use of external spaces for learning and leisure. The teaching and student accommodation buildings have been arranged on the site around a collegiate square, with each building focused around its own internal courtyard spaces. The specification of local trees with medicinal properties such as the ‘Neem’ has been incorporated as a symbol to the Institute’s mission.

JMP has worked with the Yale University School of Nursing as the education advisor on the project.

Hannah Lawson, Director of Education and Culture at JMP, said,

“The impact of the IIAN will be far reaching and it’s vital that such an important facility has an innovative, highly-sustainable building at its centre. The new campus buildings will not only act as a draw for nurses internationally but will also have a significant effect on the local community.”

-ENDS-

For further information and high-resolution images, please contact:

Peter Dye, ING Media
T: 020 7392 1981 | M: 07738 260447 | E: peter@ing-media.com

Chantelle Osborne, ING Media
T: 020 7247 8334 | E: chantelle@ing-media.com

John McAslan + Partners

John McAslan + Partners is a leading architectural and design practice, based in London, Manchester and Edinburgh, with a large portfolio of award-winning work in Britain and overseas. Encompassing urban design, infrastructure, commercial, residential, retail, education and the arts sectors, the practice has an outstanding track-record in transformational schemes involving culturally and historically significant buildings, including: the Grade I listed Modernist masterpiece, the De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill on the South coast of England; the renowned Roundhouse arts venue in Camden, London; and the Grade II* listed Peter Jones department store in Sloane Square, London. JMP Initiatives are the practice’s community and environmental projects around the world. Working in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative and other NGOs, government agencies and private sector organisations, the practice leads and collaborates on built environment projects that aim to make a direct difference to people’s lives. Current projects include: the Victorian Iron Market in Port-au-Prince and housing settlement projects in Haiti; community schools and teacher training centres in Malawi; the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies, Kenya; as well as education projects in Rwanda and India. Other Initiatives projects include the JMP funded RIBA/ICE Bursary in the UK, which supports students and recent graduates to carry out small-scale interventions to improve life in deprived communities.

Around the world, John McAslan + Partners is working on: the £450M development of the Grade I listed King’s Cross Station in the heart of London, the transformation of the historic centre of the Stanislavsky family in Moscow, including a prominent mixed-use and residential building; and new cultural and apartment buildings within the Heart of Doha project in Qatar. Having just recently completed the new British Embassy building in Algiers, the studio is also designing a £120 million sustainable super-campus for Manchester Metropolitan University in Hulme; an innovative High School and Community Library at Craigmillar in Scotland; a major new high quality office and mixed-use development near St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London, known as 5 Cheapside; and the Olympic Energy Centres for the 2012 London Olympics.

For more information, please visit: www.mcaslan.co.uk and www.mcaslan-family-trust.com