Réunion Island: designing healthcare facilities in dialogue with their territory.

Our approach is based on an integrated design process that brings together complementary disciplines such as architecture and engineering from the earliest stages of a project. The analysis of prevailing winds, solar exposure, topography, and patterns of use directly informs decisions regarding site placement, massing, and spatial organisation. Beyond environmental performance, this careful reading of the context makes it possible to create places that are adapted to the realities of Réunion Island while ensuring comfort, adaptability, and quality of use. 

The vertical extension and expansion project for CHOR, located on a steeply sloping site, illustrates this commitment to working in harmony with both the existing structure and the landscape. Conceived as a sustainable and flexible extension of the hospital campus, it develops a contextual architecture that continues the legacy of the existing CHOR and its bioclimatic principles. The building has been designed to take advantage of natural airflow, preserve the ventilation mechanisms of the existing site, and anticipate the future evolution of the facility. 

This attention to climate is also reflected in the CSSOI project. Located near the Saint-Pierre university campus, the centre is organised around the site's natural characteristics: prevailing winds, solar exposure, plot geometry, and the presence of a protected woodland area become the driving forces behind the design.

The aerodynamic optimisation of the volumes, porous façades, solar protection systems adapted to each orientation, and dedicated airflow studies all contribute to efficient natural ventilation and largely passive thermal comfort. 

Beyond climatic considerations, these projects reflect a vision of healthcare and learning in which space plays an essential role. Within the CHOR 2 project, the architecture is part of a holistic approach to care, where the landscape, views, gardens, and presence of vegetation contribute directly to the well-being of patients, visitors, and healthcare professionals. Outdoor spaces become therapeutic extensions of the building, fostering a sense of calm and strengthening the connection with nature. For the CSSOI, this reflection takes a different yet complementary form: the building is conceived as a true “teaching hospital”, where architecture becomes a pedagogical tool. The design of circulation routes, the legibility of spaces, observation devices, and visual interactions help create an immersive environment dedicated to the training of healthcare professionals. 

Through these projects, and others currently under development accross the island, we affirm our approach: one grounded in a careful understanding of local realities, wether climatic, geographical cultural or related to patterns of use. 

It is by drawing on these specific conditions that we develop responses closely aligned with local challenges, wherever we work. The projects currently being delivered on Réunion Island provide a concrete illustration of this approach: solutions designed for a unique territory, capable of transforming a context into a genuine resource.