ARCHITECTURAL FOCUS
A HEALING ENVIRONMENT THE INTEGRATED CANCER TREATMENT CENTRE OF THE CHU DE QUÉBEC-UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL The integrated cancer treatment centre (centre intégré de cancérologie – CIC) is a major step forward in the construction of the new hospital complex of the Quebec City-Laval University hospital centre (CHU de Québec-Université Laval) on the Hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus campus in Quebec City. It includes all specialties and the latest technologies for the treatment of cancer. The starting point for the architectural development of the CIC was the design of a green inner courtyard, surrounded by the oncology program. The aim was to provide pleasant reception areas, waiting rooms, traffic zones, care facilities and work areas that promote health and healing. An abundance of natural light, outdoor views, green spaces, warm materials and colours, and art characterize this calming new healthcare space, which offers the best practices and the latest technology.
CLINICAL PROGRAM AND DESIGN With 32,230 m² of floorspace, the CIC is Quebec’s largest cancer treatment centre and one of the largest in Canada. It is home to a technologically advanced program that delivers a wide range of specialized and overspecialized services and treatments to cancer patients. The facility includes a radio-oncology department (teletherapy and brachytherapy); consultation rooms organized into clinics based on the tumour site; a chemotherapy ward capable of treating up to 70 patients simultaneously; an oncological pharmacy; a rapid-response oncology treatment department (SIRO); a treatment planning and simulation department; a medical physics lab; and several support offices for patients and staff. In order to integrate oncology research activities and bring them closer to medical realities, the CIC has spaces dedicated to research, innovation and teaching and will be connected to the future basic research centre. Two clinical research areas are located on the second and fourth floors, where they will intersect with the future research centre, and other offices are integrated with the consultation clinics to facilitate patients’ participation in research protocols. The facility’s specialized elements include radiosurgery and adaptive radiotherapy, radiotherapy by orthovoltage and the careful integration of numerous cutting-edge medical devices: linear accelerators, magnetic resonance imaging scanners (MRI), a linear accelerator system with onboard MRI scanner (MRI-LINAC), CT scanners and positron emission tomography scanners (PET/CT). The north side of the building consists of a podium for teletherapy, with bunkers on the ground floor and electromechanical services on the second. In the centre, a transversal, 6-level volume, which will be connected to the future basic research centre, contains brachytherapy rooms and research labs on the garden (basement) level, further teletherapy spaces on the ground floor and consultation clinics on the next three levels, with the top floor reserved for electromechanical services. On the south side, four levels surround the inner courtyard. This is where part of the
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medical physics laboratory is located, along with a cyclotron, a future research imaging space and a teaching area at garden level. The rest of the medical physics centre and the treatment planning and simulation department are situated on the ground floor, under two floors dedicated to chemotherapy, with the oncological pharmacy on the second floor and the rapid-response treatment department on the third. This part of the complex was designed to accommodate two additional floors if a future expansion is needed. The consultation clinics were designed to ensure patients’ privacy, offer greater flexibility in their use and maximize staff efficiency. To enable a separation of public and private traffic flows, the examination rooms have double doors and are arranged around an interdisciplinary workspace reserved for medical staff. Thus, patients access the examination rooms through a public hallway, while staff members reach them via the central workspace. To give patients more privacy, the chemotherapy ward is divided into six clusters of a dozen rooms arranged around a guard post. In each cluster, chairs are placed along the outside walls to allow patients to take advantage of natural light and views of the outside and rooftop gardens, while a closed room with gurneys is located next to the guard post. The oncological pharmacy is adjacent to the chemotherapy ward in order to facilitate medication supply, while the SIRO – where patients needing urgent oncological intervention are treated – is located on the third floor near a set of six gurneys reserved for apheresis treatments.
CONTEXT AND ARCHITECTURAL INTEGRATION A major component of the new hospital complex was the requirement that the CIC had to be integrated into the existing hospital complex and its urban context with a comprehensive architectural vision. The centre was built near the edge of the site to offer patients as much privacy as possible. Its volumes were
