The Fleurimont Hospital —one of the two establishments of the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS)— has been cramped for many years and is facing a significant increase in needs requiring to upgrade its facilities. As the fourth largest university hospital center in Quebec, the CHUS stands out in several cutting-edge sectors, in addition to being the only one to assume the triple role of:
- a community hospital for the citizens of Sherbrooke;
- a regional hospital center for the entire population of the Eastern Townships, providing specialized and ultra-specialized care and services such as trauma, cardiology, vascular surgery, neurosurgery, and pediatrics;
- a key supra-regional hub, being the only university hospital center outside Quebec City and Montreal, and a reference center for its ultra-specialized services for part of the populations of Centre du Québec and Montérégie.
Maternal and child care accounts for a total of 30% of the hospital's activities and continues to grow. This increase is due in particular to a longer life expectancy of very premature and extremely premature babies —a situation that leads to more complex pathologies— but also to the emergence of new technologies that reduce the infant mortality rate. This situation, combined with facilities that have not been brought up to standard since their opening in the 1960s, has led the CIUSSS Estrie – CHUS to carry out this major expansion and refurbishment project at the Fleurimont Hospital.
Several design criteria are guiding the choices related to the project:
- planning simple, rational and efficient flows as well as strategies to promote intuitive orientation;
- abundance of natural light;
- a spacious and bright reception area;
- the efficiency and quality of the layouts;
- the grouping of functions, sectors and services of similar care intensity and nature;
- the superposition of functional units of a similar nature;
- the respectful integration of the project into the built and natural landscape of the hospital site;
- the development of an architectural vocabulary that is harmonious with the existing buildings;
- landscaping that contributes to and integrates with its environment and facilitates orientation and wayfinding;