Designed by CDA, Paras Yash Kothari Hospital transforms a derelict structure in Uttar Pradesh into a 430-bed, patient-focused facility, setting new benchmarks in sustainable and empathetic healthcare design.

The Paras Yash Kothari Hospital is a 430-bed tertiary care facility that repurposes a derelict construction near the banks of the river Ganges in the New Kanpur district in Uttar Pradesh. The hospital caters to the healthcare needs of Kanpur and its surrounding towns and villages with an empathetic and responsive healing environment offering specialised clinical services, predominantly scarce in the sub-urban Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s most populous states. Paras Health appointed CDA where the Principal Architects Ravideep Singh, Maninder Kaur and Mohanbir Singh spearheaded the project to help reinvigorate the defunct infrastructure into a health oasis that is patient￾centric and fosters wellness.

Addressing Demands for Affordable Healthcare

Paras Yash Kothari Hospital continues to share a synergistic relationship with India’s burgeoning middle￾class population, which longs for affordable delivery of high-quality healthcare. With a Built-Up Area 430,000 SF, the hospital accommodates over 430 beds including 100 intensive care beds at a staggering efficiency of 900 sq ft per bed. It also houses specialized facilities in oncology medicine with two linear accelerators and Nuclear Imaging, neurology and cardiology among other highly advanced departments and technologies.

The design for Paras Health emanates from three guiding principles woven together to seamlessly create a highly functional, flexible, and resilient hospital building – sustainability, streamlined operations and user experience.

Evidence-Based Design with Functional Efficiency

The hospital design embodies a reinterpretation of the ‘Breitfuss’ Model, promoting seamless operations by minimising walking distances for staff and visitors alike. Programmatically similar functions are strategically grouped within proximity. Following this principle, the 9-story structure integrates emergency care, ambulatory care, and surgical departments on the lower floors. This functional distribution is reflected in the building’s physical appearance, where the upper floors housing in-patient rooms appear distinct from the lower floors, separated by a service deck in between. At the heart of the hospital lies a monumental central courtyard. This light-filled atrium acts as an organising element, connecting various departments and creating a welcoming environment for patients and visitors alike. The courtyard also serves as a hub for positive distractions, fostering a sense of calm and tranquillity throughout the facility.

The modular patient rooms are designed to minimise errors and ensure optimal efficiency for healthcare staff. Warm, healing colours and natural materials such as locally sourced granite and tiles in the public areas and the patient rooms aim to reduce stress and promote healing. Each patient room benefits from expansive view windows, providing ample natural light and outdoor views to enhance the patient experience. Thoughtfully designed and accessible healing gardens within the building offer a sense of control to patients and encourage movement and exercise. These landscaped pockets also serve as cultural congregation spaces, while the outdoor patios function as extended break rooms for staff. Additionally, the third￾level courtyard is intended to be a sanctuary for patients, providing a safe outdoor space that promotes recovery in line with evidence-based healthcare design principles. Programmatically, the design incorporates a significant number of single rooms, introducing a new typology of smaller rooms at a 160-180 sq. ft. ballpark dubbed as ‘small single rooms’. This approach deviates from conventional Indian healthcare planning, which often prioritises multi-patient wards to maximise bed count, potentially compromising infection control and increasing patient risks.

Embracing Adaptive Reuse for Efficiency

“Being an adaptive reuse project, the facility succeeded in compressing the construction timeline to a striking 18 months, as against 2830 months for a green field project of a similar scale. Despite that, there were several challenges in the existing structure such as fixed deck-to￾deck heights, narrow and in-efficient floor plates and a sheer lack of accessible respite areas for patients and caregivers. However, through strategic programming and zoning, the design team seamlessly augmented services by extending the existing floor plate adding 10 feet along the courtyard’s internal periphery and planning the departments around it.” Ravideep Singh, Principal Architects, CDA.

This resulted in a consistent circulation spine across all floors. With a modular spine on each floor, wayfinding within the large hospital complex is efficient, and optimal daylighting is achieved throughout, with the atrium serving as a central orienting point for both rural and urban visitors. The design team further addressed the limitations of the existing building to optimise functionality. For instance, demolishing the first-floor slab created a double-height foyer, fostering a more patient￾friendly and inviting atmosphere. Similarly, removing a portion of the floorplate introduced a double-height green open space, enhancing the overall experience.

Evidence-Based Design with Functional Efficiency

The hospital is set to achieve a USGBC LEED GOLD Healthcare rating, ensuring efficiency across disciplines. From an energy conservation standpoint, the building envelope modulates its fenestration to ensure minimal heat gain and maximise on usable daylight. Consequently, the south and west facades use insulated glass units to minimise heat gain. Further, over 20% of the total load is being offset by solar panels in addition to the entire water heating demands of the facility, paving the way to a greener healthcare ecosystem.

The Paras Yash Kothari Hospital stands as a testament to the potential of adaptive reuse and patient-centric design in addressing India’s critical healthcare needs. By transforming an abandoned structure into a state-of-the-art medical facility, CDA has created a resilient and sustainable model that prioritizes functional efficiency, environmental responsibility, and holistic healing. This project demonstrates how thoughtful design can overcome structural constraints to deliver high-quality care while setting new benchmarks in healthcare infrastructure. As it continues to serve the growing needs of Uttar Pradesh’s population, the hospital not only exemplifies innovation but also inspires future endeavors to combine empathy with architectural ingenuity in shaping the healthcare spaces of tomorrow.

Project Specification:
ACP/Glass/Concrete: Aludecor/ Saint Gobain
Sanitaryware/Fittings: Jaguar/ TOTO
Flooring: Marble/Granite/ Anti-skid/Anti-static tiles/ NITCO/
SOMANY
Furnishing: Laminate/ Modular
Furniture: Modular
Air Conditioning: Daikan
Lighting: Philips/ Wipro/ Bespoke
Paint: Asian Paints/ Dulux
Arts / Artefacts: Bespoke
Elevator: OTIS