Architectural Practice 


IV. Avicenna Hospital Suites



Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4



This project of three suites and an open ward in the Ibni Sino (Avicenna) Hospital, as I came to understand towards its completion, explores the notion of the ordinary.

One of the effective ways to make something conceptually (artistically) sustainable, as I see things, is to mimic a precedent. This precedent, being abstract, does not necessarily present itself as a holistic piece. Rather, it appears as a glimmering constellation of qualities derived from actual precedents—from actual buildings to oneiric spatial and material experiences. When mimicked, these qualities are represented in a similarly discontinuous manner.

In a sense, when I try to produce the ordinary, my aim is to provide a result that appears indifferent. However, it actually is infinitely close to being overthought—a state where over-intellectualisation causes thought to fall apart. As wine that is infinitely close to vinegar, yet still drinkable. With myself being the principal designer for the project, this renders the task fairly idiosyncratic and rather contradictory, and thus challenging.

I assume this approach to work derives from the context of the projects and my experience in that context. The exoticism and extraordinary nature, the limbo-esque quality where time seems not to exist, prompt a desire to balance them with something regular, ordinary and easily defined.

Yet if the result is too direct, it cannot withstand the entropic pressure of the limbo. This is that force which makes things fall apart and requires something definite, clear and simple to counter the indefinite nature of non-time. Moreover, with material and craft scarcity, the context itself helps to avoid the most direct and seemingly logical decisions.


Each of the three suites includes an entry part with a wardrobe and a kitchenette. There is a sleeping part with a bed (and medical equipment) and a bathroom on one side, and a drawing room/reception behind a partition on the other side. The partitions are pivot elements in each of  three suites. Two are clad in brick, and one in straw-reinforced clay. The straw-reinforced clay is used in the suite where the partition is located in the middle of a floor slab rather than above a load-bearing beam, where the lighter material is structurally necessary.

The partitions need to avoid embarrassment in the face of the limbo. While they present themselves as clear, tectonic objects that might seem capable of resisting entropy—yet limbo will always prevail. To address this, they are equipped with built-in televisions that dilute their structural clarity and challenge their architectural purity. Brushed steel wheel guards are positioned in front of the partitions to protect them from medical gurneys and beds. To an extent, these paradoxically reinforce the partitions’ significance—though lacking the refinement to make that role feel fully intentional.

There seems to be a continuity in the employment of the 'pivotal' partition (see AP2 Parda Diwar).

The suites are decorated with paintings of the Oxymel series (see DC Oxymel).

Construction management: Faridun Vohidov & Abdujobir Kholiqzoda