Hospital

When you design a Lego building with many rooms, there are lots of things to take into account to ensure you're using all the space as efficiently as possible.  A hospital is a perfect example of how we can try to overcome that obstacle.

The Hospital from various angles

My requirements for a Hospital were pretty basic.  Things I felt basic to a medical facility.  A reception/waiting room, a couple of doctor's examination rooms, a nurses' station for tracking patients in the facility, a storage room for medical equipment, a doctors' lounge for the staff to relax in, a couple of patient recovery rooms, and an emergency room for the ambulance to deliver patients to.

Reception (left) and a patient in the doctor's office (right)

Nurses' station (left) and storage closet (right)

Doctors' lounge (left) and patient rooms (right)

The ambulance bay

I also needed an operating room, but I struggled with how to configure it.  I also had some spare rooms for which I needed a purpose.  In the first iteration below, I was going to have a more advanced exam room and a second equipment storage room, but I was unable to figure out what I wanted in them.  An X-ray machine?  A treadmill?  An MRI?  I had nothing.

I then got the idea to use the storage room as a staging area for the OR.  Here, the surgeons would prepare the patient to go under the knife.  One important requirement was ensuring that a stretcher could turn the corners to get in there.  But I still had one extra room that needed a purpose no ideas to go with it.

As I was preparing this post, I realized I could move OR prep room to the extra space, and use the previous prep room to an observation area.  I already had a small window for viewing the surgery, but it was only big enough for one person to view the procedure.  With a bigger room and bigger window, several people could watch.  Perhaps the patient's family, or maybe some med students.

Evolution of the Operating Room

I still need a number of pieces to complete the building.  As you can see above, I have orange and red pieces in place, to help me keep track of which pieces are missing and still needed.  I'm preparing some more orders online for bricks to finish this off. from both Lego and vendors on BrickLink.  I need another one of those big doors as well, since I robbed from Peter to pay Paul to get the OR doors in place.

Current state of the operating room's construction

This is one building that'll be under construction for quite a while.  I'm just glad I've finally figured out where to put everything, so I'm not wasting any space here.

Sets used: 6666, 7890, 8827,