Dezeen Magazine

Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes

Timber health centre surrounds courtyard of medicinal plants

MAAJ Architectes placed a cross-shaped courtyard for growing medicinal plants at the heart of a timber-framed health centre in the French town of Taverne.

The Taverny Medical Centre brings together several previously disparate healthcare facilities under one roof.

Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes

Because of the busy road next door MAAJ Architectes, decided to turn the building inwards.

The plan of the Taverny Medical Centre draws on the ancient cloister typology common in monasteries.

Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes

"In this peri-urban landscape, the aim was to set up an anchorage to the new building," MAAJ Architectes co-founder Marc-Antonie Richard-Kowienski told Dezeen.

"Thus the large plot was reshaped into a domestic landscape around the health centre."

Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes

Four individual metal pitched roofs with skylights sit at each corner of the centre's square plan

The cross-shaped central courtyard is wrapped by the centre's main circulation area.

Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes

"The central patio offers several advantages such as natural lighting for the whole building," said the practice.

"It also serves as an open extension of the waiting rooms and acts as an intimate and sensory place where medicinal plants are grown, a reminder of the health and curative purpose of the centre."

Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes

Waiting areas are nestled into each corner protruding into the courtyard, and staircases positioned along its north and south edges.

Treatment rooms are placed around the perimeter.

Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes

Its exterior walls are infilled with wooden sheets, with only small windows to shut out noise and views from the road.

A glazed section of the exterior envelope marks the centre's entrance, which is approached via a small landscaped garden that helps to create a buffer between it and the road.

Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes

Interiors are pale and calm, with exposed timber between the glazing, white ceilings and white balustrades of thin steel.

MAAJ Architectes was founded in 2004 by Richard-Kowienski and Anne-Julie Martinon.

Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes

Norweigian practice Hille Melbye recently made similar use of the courtyard typology for a psychiatric centre in Oslo, with garden spaces that are intended to act as an extension of the therapy taking place inside.

Photography is by François-Xavier Da Cunha Leal.

More images and plans

Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes
Ground floor plan
Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes
First floor plan
Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes
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Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes
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Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes
Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes
Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes
Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes
Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes
Taverny Medical Centre by MAAJ Architectes