Base-Isolated Hospital

A 600-bed hospital in Sendai that stands on 312 seismic isolation bearings, so operating theatres can keep working through a major earthquake.

The whole building, its two basement levels included, sits in a concrete pit twelve metres deep, standing on rubber-and-lead bearings and oil dampers that let the earth move up to 60 centimetres beneath it. Water, power and medical gases cross the gap through flexible joints. The hospital holds seven days of water and fuel.

Images: Instinctual Group.