Tessaract Architecture, the Bucharest-based architecture studio specializing in healthcare, won the Healthcare category prize at the Share Architects Awards for the project of the Children's Hospital built at Marie Curie Hospital in Bucharest by the non-profit Dăruiește Viață.

Share Architects Awards recognizes works in architecture from Central and South Eastern Europe. It brought together 74 teams of architects from 16 countries. Each project was evaluated by an international jury of experts.

The hospital was built with the support of more than 350,000 donors and 8,000 private companies. It was designed "to respond to the current needs for specialized medical treatment and to create an environment that prioritizes the comfort and wellbeing of patients and their families."

The hospital expansion project includes a nine-level building with a total area of over 12,000 square meters, all designed on family and community-centered design principles.

In approaching the entire project, the Tessaract architects involved multidisciplinary teams consisting not only of architects and engineers or medical equipment specialists but also of epidemiologists, psychologists, anthropologists, or sociologists who mapped the whole working ecosystem and activity in the hospital, as well as the needs of all users. 

"The Marie Curie Hospital project was a challenge that allowed us to contribute to a vital objective - to provide the young patients with a space that supports their healing and emotional state," architect Raluca Șoaita, the founder of Tessaract Architecture, said.

The jury of the competition was led by the architect Carol Ross Barney, the 2023 recipient of the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal. The jury included Martha Thorne, former executive director of the Pritzker Prize, Manuela Gato, director at Zaha Hadid Architects (UK); Francois Valentiny, Fuensanta Nieto, Kerem Yazgan, Kamran Afshar Naderi, Fokke Moerel, and other architects.

Several other projects from Romania were awarded at the event. Scara Alpine Shelter of Empatic Architecture Studio was awarded in the Sports & Wellbeing category; Rossetti Aparthotel of Enterprise Architecture and Design won in the Hotels – Restaurant & Bars category; LIV House of Ateliercetrei won in the Residential – Single Use category; and Urban Spaces 5 / Sfinții Voievozi 20-24 Apartment Building of ADN Birou de Arhitectura won in the Multi-unit Residential category. The full list of winners is available here.

(Photo: Călin George, courtesy of Dăruiește Viață)

simona@romania-insider.com