Marina Miceli
Europe Press Office,London
The Ronald McDonald children's charity has opened the 20th Ronald McDonald house at the Asklepios children’s hospital in Saint Augustin, Germany.
25 apartments will provide a temporary home to 450 families each year, while the children receive in-patient care in the clinic just a two minute walk away.
The six-storey building was designed by GRAFT, with Arup providing design work up to approval stage for the structures, building services and building physics. The main challenge involved the design of the roof structure, which spans across the protruding column-free multi-functional room, while acting as a cantilever for the main structure above the entrance area.
Half of all services prior to approval stage were provided by the employees pro bono, with the other half donated to the client by Arup.
The building is clad with aluminium panels with large bands of windows to provide the residents with an unobstructed view of the Michaelsberg Abbey in Siegburg, particularly on the upper floors. The heart of the building is a large comfortable kitchen with adjacent play and TV rooms on the open-plan ground floor. It was designed to distract residents from their emotional stress and at the same time provide an opportunity to make contact with one another.
“We believe in the concept of the Ronald McDonald children's houses and are happy that we were able to contribute.
Burkhard Miehe, Associate Director, Arup
The Ronald McDonald children's charity has opened the 20th Ronald McDonald house at the Asklepios children’s hospital in Saint Augustin, Germany.
The McDonald's Children's Charity is dedicated to the recovery and well-being of children. Its goal is to complement the national health care system in a meaningful way and to help very sick children and their families. The foundation operates a total of 20 Ronald McDonald houses in Germany, which in 2013 alone offered a temporary home to over 5,500 families.