New building for the Administration and Health services of the IKA-SOCIAL INSURANCE INSTITUTE Orestiada (Northern Greece)
Key element of the architectural composition is the buildings public aspect, as it provides services to the people of Orestiada and the nearby villages.The building user friendly by avoiding the institutional aspect of Welfare buildings, giving emphasis in the gentle external form and the organic internal distribution.
The internal distribution is based on the creation of a waiting area that overturns the conventional aspect of this kind of spaces, by giving it a new dimension.
The waiting area is thus considered as an important part of the building, and it is shaped to diffuse in-between the medical spaces, with a direct contact with the outdoor space.
This way the outdoors can be also used as waiting space, when the weather is mild.
Great importance has been given to the organization of the spaces and the orientation of the user inside the building.
Long corridors as well as intersecting circulation have been avoided. All health services have been located on the ground floor, thus avoiding circulation of patients in more than one storey.
There are two entrances that correspond to the two functions of the building -administration and Health services- in order to provide immediate orientation to the visitor-citizen.
The external staircase leading to the first floor, marks an explicit separation between the insurance services and the Health services.