Outpatient clinics, general practitioners and specialists, a gym and a refreshment area: what the New Home and Community Hospital in the Darsena will look like

By 2026 the Darsena will have a Community House and a Community Hospital. In recent days, the Ravenna municipal council approved the authorization to carry out the project in the eastern area of ​​the urban center of Ravenna. It will be a three-storey structure of 35,000 square meters in the Antica Milizia park in via Cesarea, which will have 38 medical clinics, diagnostic areas and 21 territorial beds for intermediate care. It is a work of state interest that will be built on land that the municipality has made available to the local health authority. The site was initially intended for the construction of a school, the construction of which was no longer necessary as interventions will be carried out on the Montanari school already present in the sector and others are foreseen in the investment plan. The works for the hospital will be carried out by the Ausl with funds from the Pnrr, specifically 11,227,494 euros. The start of the works is scheduled for the beginning of 2024 with an end in 2026, as required by the Pnrr.

The lot of interest is specifically located in a large piece of land located in a south-east direction with respect to the historic center of the city and dislocated with respect to the Santa Maria delle Croci hospital in Ravenna, creating a real new point of reference for the Ravenna community : a place where, thanks to its extremely strategic position with respect to the city centre, one returns, a meeting place and familiarity between several people, a point of reference for the territory and the citizenry. Thanks to its location also with respect to the hospital, the desire to create a pillar of health care at a local level is respected, which is perceived by citizens as a fundamental support for the maintenance and care of the person; a point of reference for one’s health which does not replace the first pillar, i.e. the hospital, which, in the eyes of citizens, summarizes all health care, but which, on the contrary, supports and assists it.

What will the New Community House and Community Hospital of the Darsena be like?

The land borders to the north with Via Antica Milizia, to the north-east with Via Stradone, to the west with Via Don Carlo Sala and to the south with Viale Europa. The building has an H shape and is spread over three levels above ground (floor ground, first and second), with an overall planimetric reduction that does not substantially reduce the services provided in terms of outpatient facilities and a reduction in the overall number of beds of the Os.Co. (which were set at 21 units). The central body of the two blocks of the building acts as a link between the various functional areas and houses the vertical connections inside, as well as waiting spaces and mainly support rooms.

The ground floor features a central element that serves as the entrance and lobby. The general master plan provides for the construction of the building with the health functions of the Community House, for a total of approximately 4,000 square metres. The ground floor has 4 separate entrances located respectively to the North, South, East and West. The main entrance is the one to the north (Via Antica Milizia side) which immediately welcomes the citizen thanks to the presence of an information/welcome point. The entrance desk is central to the north-south axis which, together with the east-west axis, is the matrix of the project and determines the functional layout of the ground floor. At this entrance area there is a large waiting area dedicated to the withdrawal point. The sampling clinics, which accommodate a total of 8 workstations, are located on the right-hand side of the ground floor. Together with them there is also a clinic for the delivery of biological material. On the opposite side of the latter there are support rooms, as well as the area dedicated to one-stop shops. On the north side, immediately in correspondence with the main entrance, there is a refreshment area. This overlooks the central square located between the Casa della Comunità and Via Antica Milizia. Thanks to its location in a clearly visible space also with respect to the street front, it can be used not only by the users of the structure, but also by all citizens. In this way a real meeting space and a place where one feels welcomed is created. On the west side of the structure all the health promotion spaces have been located, including counseling rooms and an equipped kitchen. To the southwest there is a multipurpose room with a capacity of about 60 seats which overlooks the health park. There are four stairwells, two of which are external for safety and which will act as a connection and union point for any future expansion. In the external space of the ground floor, on the right, there will be a technical room.

On the first floor we find the heart of the Community House. Inside the building on the left, characterized by a five-fold body, there are general practitioners (primary care). There are also various support rooms for this functional area, including deposits, archives and toilets for users, but also dedicated to staff. In the connecting block between the two buildings we find the main stairwell, a dedicated technical room as well as other primary care clinics. In the triple body building on the right, reduced in size compared to the previous one, there are all the rooms dedicated to specialist doctors. The decision to place general practitioners and specialist doctors on the same level is driven by the desire to encourage and make collaboration between health professionals in these two functional areas as efficient as possible.

On the second and last floor, we find on the left side the area dedicated to primary care, in particular to the Community Hospital which has all the filtered stairwells, as well as the presence of two bedlifts to allow easy movement of patients. The right side is dedicated to outpatient diagnostics and specialists. Then there are the outpatient clinics and spaces for rehabilitation medicine and spaces dedicated to diagnostic imaging. A gymnasium for rehabilitation medicine will also be built. The roofing level is dedicated, in particular on the north side, to technical rooms for systems which can be reached via the right-hand stairwell which reaches the roof.

Internal routes and access networks

The lot borders to the north east with two driveways. The road to the north, i.e. Via Antica Milizia, which the Rue and the Poc define as a commercial axis, appears to be a dual-scroll urban road as well as being the main road that connects this area of ​​the city with the historic center and the hospital Santa Maria delle Croci. To the east, the lot borders on Via Rita Montagnana, a recently built road that allows residential buildings still under construction to be reached from Via Antica Milizia. The construction of parking lots is planned on this axis. Another large car park dedicated to the structure is located to the northwest of the lot, on the side bordering Via Antica Milizia.

The routes inside the area of ​​interest are pedestrian and/or cycle paths in order to ensure slow mobility and therefore greater promotion of health and healthy lifestyles. It also guarantees better acoustic comfort, as well as safer use of the park, even for the elderly and children. The main driveways to access the lot, as well as the Casa della Comunità and Osco, are one to the north at the new parking lots that will be built for use by the social and health facility, the other to the east at Via Rita Montagnana.

It is planned to keep the driveways external to the lot as far as possible, while the pedestrian accesses are different internally. In particular, several pedestrian accesses are planned from the southwest side (towards Parco Cesarea) in order to create a connection and a seam between the public spaces of the Community House and the recently built public park. Other pedestrian accesses are also planned to the east and north of the building. Permeability and the possibility of accessing the structure from as many points as possible is one of the characteristics, as well as the matrix of the project itself.