Institute of Pathology and Forensic Medicine Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen

The location of the building is at the intersection of two areas with different main directions: the Cantonal Hospital and the St. Fiden neighbourhood. Two twisted squares are the basis of the design resulting in overlaps, intersections and sunken gardens in the project.
The square is a symbol of order and solidity and the organising element of the design. It appears in scales of the basic form from the large to the small - the rooms are concentrically layered around a square core. 
The lounge forms the core of the room arrangement and is designed as a place of communication. The rotation of the overall floor plan creates skylights that turn the room into a luminous body and thus into a point of orientation.
The aluminium façade has the effect of a uniform appearance of a complex spatial structure. An outer protective metal layer reveals a second glass skin by cutting into it and folding it out. The unfolded metal elements become fixed sun wings, which form a sun protection optimised to the course of the sun with maximum light incidence in the rooms. The skin as a spatial filter conveys insight and distance.
The light: sun wings - shadow play - reflections. Light becomes a connecting feature between the storeys and between the rooms.

Maximum flexibility was another aim of the design. The laboratories can be freely subdivided in a grid of 1.50 m and technical access is not linked to the laboratories. The media are distributed in a ring in the corridor.