Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Success for a new medical school in Singapore hinges on clear strategy.
Increased competition for National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and tougher visa regulations are driving medical schools to Asia and the Middle East in search of more robust research environments: Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass., has a large medical campus in Dubai; Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y., opened the first U.S.-based medical school in Qatar; and now Duke Univ., Durham, N.C., is forming the first graduate medical school in Singapore.
 To keep the GMS temperate during Singapore’s scorching summers and monsoon winters, the architects incorporated exterior building envelope strategies such as screening louvers and sunshades. Image: RMJM Hillier. |
Such moves open these universities to a wide range of benefits—new funding sources, untapped student populations, and the top minds from around the world—but they also carry risk. Not all foreign-domestic medical partnerships have been a success, as evidenced by the experience of Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, Md. which partnered with Singapore on an international medical clinic in that country in 1998. Unrealistic expectations and lack of commitment on both sides were cited as reasons it was dismantled eight years later.
“The main lesson I’m taking from the Hopkins experience is to be very clear on what the key performance indicators are,” says Dean Sanders Williams of his plans for Duke’s medical school in Singapore, according to an August 2006 Triangle Business Journal article. “We need to be as crystal clear as we can in what it is we’re supposed to deliver.”
Designed by Hillier Architecture, New York, N.Y., with local partner CPG Consultants Pte. Ltd., Singapore, the Duke Univ./National Univ. of Singapore Graduate Medical School (GMS) is on schedule for completion in 2009, thanks in part to Duke’s “ground rules”: international partners must share Duke’s vision; the school is held to Duke standards; and an exit strategy is in place. To ensure the GMS plans stay on track, Duke has identified three keys for success:
• Taking a close look at where the facility would be located.
• Making sure the Duke Univ. brand would translate to Singapore.
• Enhancing the research environment to attract the best scientists.
Branding on location
Conveniently located in the heart of the Outram campus, GMS will be near the Singapore General Hospital, the existing National Cancer Center, and well-known biotech companies and institutions.
The GMS site was chosen for its prominence and flexibility. As visitors arrive off the Central Expressway, the area’s main thoroughfare, GMS will be their first glimpse of the medical campus. The school’s 15-story administrative tower highlights the importance of the new facility.
To adapt the Duke brand to the Singaporean market, the GMS design integrated notions of the American school into its atrium, amenity spaces, and laboratories. The GMS tower, while different Duke buildings conveys the Duke image with its grand atrium space, reminiscent of the Duke Chapel. The incorporation of Duke stone into the landscaping and signage also reminds the students of the North Carolina-based institution.
Enhancing the research environment
Employees in administrative and office spaces are treated to a Western space standard where no workstation is more than 7.6 m from the advanced earthen wall façade, ensuring constant access to natural daylight. Sun and rain screening on the façade protect the building during the summer and winter months. And the exterior louvers and sunshades keep perimeter workstations cool year round.
Modular casework allows researchers to rearrange their spaces based on their projects. Writing nooks provide more counter space for experiments. The linear structure co-locates all the researchers on the same team. Because the lab block operates on a BSL-2 level mechanical system, all non-critical offices and write-up spaces were pulled out of the floor plate and relocated across the atrium to lower air-conditioning requirements. Gas, electric, and water systems are hidden in a raceway along the shelving units and descend as needed. Cabinets below the counters are on rollers so they can be adjusted quickly, and the vertical shelving supports are the only static structure in the labs.
By taking a close look at the location, making sure the Duke brand fits in Singapore, and enhancing GMS’ research environment to attract the best scientists, the Duke Univ./National Univ. of Singapore’s joint venture is well on its way to being an East-meets-West success story.
—Steve Gifford, AIA, principal, RMJM Hillier Architecture