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On Vancouver Island, British Columbia, ZGF and Parkin Architects—A Canadian firm with offices in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver is designing a hospital that could set a new standard for culturally inclusive healthcare design. Cowichan Regional Hospital in Duncan, British Columbia, is a $1.45 billion project that uses evidence-based design to meet the health care needs of First Nations.
When completed, the 607,600-square-foot facility will feature patient rooms accommodating Aboriginal healing practices involving burning, as well as other cultural amenities resulting from close dialogue with the Cowichan Valley Aboriginal community. Parkin is the lead architect on the project, with ZGF leading the shell and core design.
In Canada, the socioeconomic gap between Aboriginal communities and white Canadians is staggering. Today, 25% of Aboriginal people (Aborigines, Métis and Inuit) live below the poverty line, as report Canadian Poverty Research Institute, and Aboriginal women account for 40% Canadian prison population.
This inequality is also reflected in Canada’s health care system.A recent survey was conducted by Winnipeg Aboriginal Health and Wellness Center found that Aboriginal youth (aged 19 to 29) and their families received lower quality health care in Canadian hospitals than white Canadians. The report revealed rampant “anti-Indigenous discrimination” against Aboriginal communities and a “deep distrust” of the health care system as a whole.
Respondents said the antidote was more Aboriginal staff, trauma-informed care, Aboriginal-led drug treatment clinic; Culturally inclusive hospitals are filled with amenities such as wards equipped with healing practices, Aboriginal food preparation kitchens, art programs and gardens.
To help meet this important need, Parkin Architects and ZGF Stand up for yourself. Upcoming Cowichan Regional Hospital It will replace an existing 20th-century building on Vancouver Island, which was built on the unceded traditional territory of the Cowichan Nation.
The work, formally known as the Cowichan Regional Hospital Replacement Project, will see the construction of a seven-story hospital constructed in part from heavy timber. The hub of the new building will be a two-story heavy wood community hall connecting the future diagnostic and treatment building and the inpatient building. The architects noted that they worked closely with Aboriginal people to ensure the hospital buildings were culturally sensitive and significant to the local community.
Shane Czypyha, Principal at Parkin Architects tells us one The design of the hospital resulted from lengthy meetings and discussions with representatives of the Cowichan Tribe. “Cowichan tribal project leaders were invited from the beginning to conduct immersive cultural education to learn about cultural safety and their customs, and our entire design and project teams also participated in cultural safety training,” Czypyha said.
“We relied on this education through many engagement sessions and dinners with local elders, language experts, Aboriginal food experts, Aboriginal Health Advisory Committees, regional national leadership groups and the public through journey mapping sessions.” Zipiha continued. “The format of this process was Aboriginal-led and involved regular feedback meetings, and what we learned from these events led to a design by Parkin and ZGF Architects that responded to custom and needs, reflected vernacular architecture and culture, and involved the local area of Aboriginal communities.“
The new building will be three times larger than the existing hospital. It will have 204 beds, 7 operating rooms, 2 trauma rooms, fast-track and discharge space, fast-track streaming space and a dedicated acute psychiatric area. Today, in Canada, regulations state that only one room in any hospital can be equipped for Aboriginal healing practices involving burning, but the architects behind Cowichan Regional Hospital went above and beyond this minimum requirement. Of the hospital’s 204 rooms, 185 are capable of conducting treatment practices involving burns.
The hospital will also have a spacious terrace with sweeping views of the Cowichan Valley.To ensure people feel comfortable when entering the space, the triage desk design hides the security office from view, and the names of the security staff were changed to “Ts’uwtun” means “the welcomer” in the native language of the Hul’q’umi’num people. Parkin Architects said the approach was to ensure visitors saw “a warm and trusting face, without being punitive”.
At Cowichan Regional Hospital, architects sought to build Canada’s first zero-carbon hospital and British Columbia’s first all-electric hospital. To reduce medical errors, all patient and support rooms will be standardized. Restroom layouts will be optimized to minimize staff injuries, and hand hygiene sinks will be moved from support rooms to corridor entrances to increase visibility and encourage better hygiene to reduce hospital-acquired infections.
Construction on the replacement building has begun, with Cowichan Regional Hospital expected to open to provide patient care in 2027.
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