SZMC Helmsley Cancer Center

The SZMC Helmsley Cancer Center is Israel’s new flagship center for oncology, housing patient assessment and treatment as well as physical, psychological, social, and spiritual care services. The 7500m2 center is part of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, one of the country’s most prominent health organizations, and comprises the first phase of Farrow Partners’ comprehensive SZMC Master Plan to expand the campus from one million square feet to more than six million square feet and 2,200 beds.

Inspired by the form of a butterfly, whose metamorphosis serves as a poignant metaphor for the transformative process of treatment, the centre is designed to actively cause health by employing neuro-wellness interventions to enhance the medical experience. Furthermore, the Center’s design directly addresses the emotional needs of patients and families by offering a rich spatial dialogue between person and place in order to impress upon individuals their value and agency, promote vitality and instill hope. Different from many healthcare projects billed as centres of excellence, this approach positions the project a centre of influencewhich improves clinical and human outcomes for patients, visitors, and staff.

Beyond housing state-of-the-art treatment facilities, the Helmsley Cancer Centre leverages scientifically-grounded, salutogenic, and multi-sensory neuro-wellness design strategies to improve the full range of clinical and human outcomes based on concepts emerging at the intersection of architecture and neuroscience.

The 16-metre timber exoskeleton is one of the world’s most complex timber fabrications to date. It is unique in Jerusalem, a city with a 5,000-year tradition of building in stone. The assembly consists of 715 individual European larch glulam members and 560 square meters of spruce cross laminate timber roof panels, totaling 356 cubic meters of timber, all tied together by 2,700 concealed steel connectors. Tightly double-curved beams at over a metre in depth support the outer edges of the roof’s 11-metre cantilevers. The embodied carbon storage reflects the equivalent carbon produced by 1,600 cars driving daily for a year.