Duke’s cross-cultural partnership creates a new medical school in Singapore
By Steven Gifford, AIA
To keep the GMS temperate during Singapore’s scorching summers and monsoon winters, the architects incorporated exterior building envelope strategies such as sun and rain screening on the façade and exterior louvers and sunshades to keep workstations cool year round. All graphics: RMJM Hillier.Click to enlarge. |
Increased competition for National Institutes of Health funding and tougher visa regulations are driving medical schools to Asia and the Middle East in search of more robust research environments: Harvard Univ. has a large medical campus in Dubai; Cornell Univ. opened the first U.S.-based medical school in Qatar; and now Duke Univ. is forming the first graduate medical school in Singapore.
Such moves open these universities to a wide range of benefits—new funding sources, untapped student populations, and the top minds from around the world—but they also carry a certain level of risk. Not all foreign-domestic medical partnerships have been a success, as evidenced by the experience of Johns Hopkins Univ. When Johns Hopkins partnered with Singapore on an international medical clinic in Singapore in 1998, it hoped to expand the university’s presence in Asia. Eight years later the joint venture was dismantled citing unrealistic expectations and lack of commitment on both sides.
“The main lesson I’m taking from the Hopkins experience is to be very clear on what the key performance indicators are,” says dean R. Sanders Williams of his plans for Duke’s medical school in Singapore, according to an August 2006 Triangle Business Journal article. “We need to be as crystal clear as we can in what it is we’re supposed to deliver.”
Designed by RMJM Hillier, with local partner CPG Consultants Pte. Ltd., the Duke Univ./ National Univ. of Singapore Graduate Medical School (GMS) is on schedule for completion in 2009, thanks in part to Duke’s “ground rules”: international partners must share Duke’s vision; the school is held to Duke standards; and an exit strategy is in place. To ensure the GMS plans stay on track, Duke has identified three keys for success:
• Taking a close look at where the facility would be located.
• Making sure the Duke Univ. brand would translate to Singpore.
• Enhancing the research environment to attract the best scientists.
Location, location, location Conveniently located in the heart of the Outram campus, GMS will be near the Singapore General Hospital, the existing National Cancer Center, and well-known biotech companies and institutions including Biopolis, a $500 million biomedical research hub.
The specific site for GMS on the Outram campus was chosen for its prominence and flexibility.
As visitors arrive off the Central Expressway, the area’s main thoroughfare, GMS will be their first glimpse of the medical campus. The school’s prominent 15-story administrative tower, significantly taller than any other campus structure, highlights the importance of the new facility.
The GMS’s proposed floorplans create distinct administrative, laboratory, and write-up spaces. A central atrium fosters collaboration between the functions. Click to enlarge |
The site also plays off its close relationship with the College of Medicine and the Singapore General Hospital. The College of Medicine, an early 1900s colonial structure, houses administrative offices and acts as the current heart of the medical campus. With the GMS facility rising across the street, this corner of campus will become the dynamic hub of student activity.
With the Singapore General Hospital, the school’s tertiary-care teaching hospital, right around the corner, the medical students will have valuable resources at hand. While Phase 2 of the Duke Univ./National Univ. of Singapore partnership isn’t yet defined, the GMS site has the room and flexibility to expand.
Creating a brand Brand is all about the bond—a connection to a place or product—and it’s no longer limited to consumer goods. With the markets booming in Asia, tech-savvy, young consumers are applying their brand standards to educational institutions as well, with an extra emphasis on Western brands.
To adapt the Duke brand to the Singaporean market, the GMS design integrated notions of the American school into its atrium, amenity spaces and laboratories.
The GMS tower, while markedly different from the horizontal laboratories augmented with stone elements on the Durham, N.C., campus, conveys the Duke image with its grand atrium space, which is reminiscent of the Duke Chapel. The creation of a “campus” within a building—with conference rooms, cafes, and an atrium surrounded by research pods that function as the intellectual heart of the building—brings to mind images of successful American colleges. The incorporation of Duke stone into the landscaping and signage reminds the students of the North Carolina-based institution and lends authenticity to the project. All the while, the sophisticated curtain wall and ceramic façade design pay homage to the local culture.
Duke’s colors are reflected in the orange back-painted glass and dark blue laminate casework in the laboratories. Even the elevator lobbies mimic those in Durham.
The preponderance of the Duke brand extends the excellence in education to the Asian campus.
The lab's design intent is to treat employees in administrative and office spaces to a Western space standard where no workstation is more than 25 ft from the façade, ensuring constant access to natural daylight. Research labs will also receive ample daylight. Click to enlarge. |
Enhancing the research environment Recognizing that the success of the building hinges on its researchers and students, the architects designed the school to take advantage of its exotic surroundings while providing advanced laboratory systems. Researchers toiling away in their labs have views across the campus greens, courtesy of the façade’s advanced curtain wall system. Employees in administrative and office spaces are treated to a Western space standard where no workstation is more than 25 ft from the façade, ensuring constant access to natural daylight.
To keep the building temperate during the scorching summers and monsoon winters, the architects incorporated exterior building envelope strategies. Sun and rain screening on the façade protect the building during the summer and winter months. The exterior louvers and sunshades keep perimeter workstations cool year round.
Inside, scientists will be treated to streamlined, custom-designed laboratories. Modular casework allows researchers to rearrange their spaces based on the projects. Writing nooks provide more counter space for experiments. The linear structure co-locates all the researchers on the same team. Since the lab block operates on a BSL-2 level mechanical system, all non-critical offices and write-up spaces were pulled out of the floor plate and relocated across the atrium to lower air-conditioning requirements.
Inventive, custom-made casework systems promise originality for each scientist. Sleek laminate counters run from the walkway to the window without interruption from service lines or sinks. The gas, electric, and water systems are hidden in a raceway along the shelving units and descend as needed. Cabinets below the counters are on rollers so they can be adjusted easily and quickly. In fact, the vertical shelving supports are the only static structure in the labs.
By taking a close look at the GMS’ location, making sure the Duke brand fits in Singapore, and enhancing GMS’ research environment to attract the best scientists, the Duke Univ./ National Univ. of Singapore’s joint venture is well on its way to being an East-meets-West success story.
Steve Gifford, AIA, is a principal of the New York City office of RMJM Hillier, an international design firm (www.hillier.com).
