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2024

MCHAP

Hospital Veterinário Escola da Unileão

Lins Arquitetos Associados

Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, Brazil

January 2023

PRIMARY AUTHOR

George de Menezes Lins (Director), Cintia Menezes Lins de Matos (Directress)

CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR

Ampla Engenharia (MEPF engineer), Tiago Ivo Engenharia (Structural engineer)

CLIENT

Unileão

PHOTOGRAPHER

Joana de Alcântara e França

OBJECTIVE

The building was designed, from its conception, to be built in a practical and efficient way. Its structure is completely modulated and rational, which allows for quick assembly, with industrialized and practical processes.
Despite this, the beauty of the cover was not compromised, on the contrary, it rests on this structural mesh in a very soft and delicate way, like light waves in the middle of the sertão, interrupted from time to time to allow the hot air to escape, stimulating the cross ventilation and most importantly, bring shade to the activities that are carried out there. In addition to the aesthetic result, the use of natural light through its skylights and the high ceiling that contributes to temperature regulation, guarantee functionality to the element, making it extremely efficient, as well as beautiful.
A large seven-meter-high barrier was erected on the west facade of the building, exactly at its main entrance. Its main function is to filter sunlight, which is intense in the region, reducing its thermal load in internal spaces, without giving up capturing natural light. This element, very tall and slender, was laid out in curves to alleviate its structure and at the same time communicate with the deck above. Inside the building it also assumes another function, which is to divide the public and private sectors. It is important to highlight that the element is made of solid ceramic bricks produced in the region and easily laid by local labor.

CONTEXT

The Unileão Veterinary School Hospital is located in the city of Juazeiro do Norte, Cariri, south of the state of Ceará. This is na equipment for the institution's veterinary medicine course and is intended to train students through the practice of activities, always supervised by professors. The Hospital is open 24 hours a day and serves small and large animals and it has hospitalization areas for small and large animals, paddocks, offices, wards, surgical center, physiotherapy, imaging, pharmacy and warehouses. In addition, it has a large research center with several laboratories and classrooms where technologies are designed and improved for the local reality.
The equipment is located within Unileão's Lagoa Seca campus, which is in an easily accessible and sparsely populated area. Its campus is completely open to the population and together with the UFCA campus, the IFCE campus and some schools, all very close by, form the city's main educational hub.
The hospital was created with the aim of not only training future professionals, but also providing quality care in the region, for small and large animals at much more affordable prices. In addition, it has partnerships with the public sector, promoting care and shelter for stray or abandoned animals.

PERFORMANCE

All the energy consumed in the hospital, since its construction until now, is generated on the campus itself, through the use of heliotropic solar panels, which supply not only this equipment, but the entire university campus. All water used in the hospital is treated and reused, mostly to give water to the various gardens spread across the campus. Most of the materials used in the work and in the operation come from the region itself, or from its surroundings, as well as all the necessary labor. This avoids travel, reduces carbono emissions and also contributes to the improvement of the local economy. Furthermore, all plant species present throughout the equipment are native or adapted to the region, reducing water consumption while benefiting thermal comfort in the area. The grass consumed by large animals treated at the hospital is organic and produced on site.
The equipment has taken care street animals, treating them and sending them to shelters or adoption fairs in the region. It has a partnership with environmental agencies to welcome wild animals, mostly coming from the Araripe national forest, close to the region.
Finally, the building follows the same bioclimatic principles applied in other buildings on the campus, with passive intervention strategies, based on the premise of filtering sunlight and at the same time ensuring a large shade for the building. The building uses a generous volume to ensure the comfort of the space.

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