"Midea + BDP" HeYou International Hospital Leads a Healthy Headquarters-Style Crossover

Entering 2021, numerous industries are exhibiting a trend of “consolidation”. China's technology giants are embarking on new globalization strategies. According to CCTV's "Zhaowen Tianxia", tech giants such as Huawei and Midea have released significant cross-sector products, potentially signaling major moves in the healthcare sector! Recently, Midea's cross-sector venture, HeYou International Hospital, has attracted new attention, with renderings of the new hospital being uncovered. It is understood that the architectural design is by BDP (British Design Partnership), which has overseen health, wellness, and headquarters projects totaling tens of millions of square meters. It is reported that during a project presentation, BDP stated: “Midea is not just building a cross-sector hospital; it is creating a true zero-carbon, energy-efficient urban living room, where energy-saving technology coexists with healthcare. The concept of technology returning to nature positions HeYou Hospital as a leading comprehensive health complex base.”

Can a “headquarters” offer healing? Can “health” manage an urban garden? Can architecture enter a full lifecycle? What is a cross-sector hospital like when architects collaborate with a tech giant?

South side riverside outpatient hall “Urban Health Living Room” building facade

In the cross-sector plan for HeYou International Hospital, the concept of a “full lifecycle” and the headquarters vision are boldly integrated into the design. Midea's future cross-sector hospital will serve as a medical and healthcare base for the city and surrounding areas, transitioning from a traditional “treatment-centered” model to a “health-centered” one. It will be a garden-style health base for all people, applicable across the full lifecycle, covering all aspects, and coexisting with nature. The “garden-style hospital” mentioned here is not just a hospital with gardens, but a hospital built within a large urban landscape park, coexisting with nature. The entire “hospital” resembles a large urban garden. Focusing on the vitality, public nature, and artistry of the building, it creates an art museum-level, healing base experience. The architectural gateway is an “Urban Health Living Room” that fully integrates a sense of technology with green energy-saving technologies.

Based on BDP's extensive prior experience in medical and healthcare bases and headquarters design, the officially advocated “architectural vitality” is reinforced in every project, with the emphasis on a comprehensive health experience being adopted by numerous headquarters projects. In Midea's project, leveraging BDP's extensive prior experience in healthcare, the planning layout adopts the concept of “one axis, two belts, three zones, eight scenes, one picturesque realm”, allowing functional distribution to fully integrate with nature. Landscape axes connecting vertically and horizontally open up the spatial perspective. Through a built environment coexisting with nature and experiential medical services, the plan features “plug-in” style modular medical unit layouts that can expand outward as future functions are updated. This growth-oriented architectural characteristic is more conducive to future long-term functional expansion. Landscape nodes, including enclosed courtyards, sky gardens, and art corridors, introduce sunlight, air, and greenery into the hospital's interior spaces. Through a built environment coexisting with nature and experiential medical services, a spatial environment with healing functions is created, making the entire building a perceivable health park. It becomes a health-themed base, a healing garden.