The first acute-care hospital built out of timber is breaking ground – with the 97,000 square-foot Quinte Health Prince Edward Memorial Hospital serving as a new model for healthcare. That is according to HDR, the architect behind the new Picton, Ontario, Canada hospital – who will start on the mass timber installation this fall – revealing that mass timber is faster and more accurate than steel and construction.
“It’s about balancing environmental and social sustainability in the sense that mass timber in healthcare is at once about human comfort and environmental stewardship,” according to Jason-Emery Groen, HDR’s design principal, who revealed the new build will save more than 9 million kilograms of embodied carbon over traditional healthcare construction.
Wood Central understands that switching steel and concrete for timber (constructed by M Sullivan & Son) is a game-changer for the booming North American healthcare industry – whose real estate market will surpass $ 1 trillion over the next five years. This, HDR said, “demonstrates how this high-energy-use typology can be (re)designed to use sustainable building practices,” adding that timber has several biophilic benefits, namely in creating “warm, human-centric environments that are inviting and open” for visitors and inpatients alike.
“The new Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital is more than a healthcare facility,” said Stacey Daub, president and CEO of Quinte Health: “Together, with passion, purpose, and gratitude, we are forging ahead to break ground – each foundation poured and every piece of timber utilised will stand as a testament to our collective commitment to enhancing local healthcare for today and future generations.”
“Transitioning from an older, outdated building to this new innovative, all-mass timber structure (will allow) Quinte Health to meet the latest standards in health and provide a safer, more resilient space that serves both our community and the thousands of visitors every year.”
The new building, slated to open in mid-2027, comes after Wood Central last year reported that a growing number of psychiatrists and mental health experts are using mass timber to help with children’s mental health – designing facilities that remote aggression, add daylight, and importantly, connect patients with nature.
“Out is the Nurse Ratched-era designs – the straight corridors, the scary doors, and the feeling of not knowing where you are going. All replaced by universal design principles that work,” Wood Central reported, with NBBJ leading the charge with its new “Ohana” clinic, a new 55,600 square-foot Californian facility designed for Montage Health.
“When people come into emergency rooms when they need surgery, they expect to be passive recipients of care in sterile spaces,” said Susan Swick, executive director of the Ohana Center for Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health in Monterey, California. “When you come into a space for mental treatment, these are not passive treatments…it is critical that we engage a child’s curiosity and sense of agency rather than surrender.”
- To read more about Ohana and the growing push to use mass timber systems in mental health facilities, click here for Wood Central’s case study from March 2024.
