This year’s Journées de l'Architecture en Santé, hosted by the Union des architectes francophones pour la santé (UAFS), will be held on June 9 and 10 at the Research Centre of the new hospital complex in Québec City. Antonio Camara, Director at Jodoin Lamarre Pratte architectes, and Karine Boisvert, Senior Associate at Yelle Maillé architectes, will give a presentation entitled “Designing Together: Humanity, Innovation, and Excellence at the Heart of the Mother-Child Centre and Emergency Room at Fleurimont Hospital in Sherbrooke.” They will be joined by Nadia Mathieu, M.Sc. Inf., deputy to the CEO of the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et des services sociaux de l’Estrie – Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke.

Part of a broader reflection on the evolution of healthcare environments, the Mother-Child and Emergency Centre—designed in consortium with Yelle Maillé architects and Équipe A—uses architecture as a tool for dialogue between clinical requirements and human experience. This major 34,500 m² expansion, inaugurated in February, had been eagerly awaited in the Eastern Townships. Consolidating emergency, maternity, neonatology, pediatrics, and child psychiatry functions into a coherent whole, the centre provides continuity of care whether inpatient or outpatient.

The design of this major project was based on a continuous collaborative approach, bringing together key stakeholders at crucial stages. Clinicians, professionals, managers, artists, and patient partners actively contributed to defining sensitive spaces adapted to the real needs of the services.

Reflecting this approach, architects Karine Boisvert and Antonio Camara, alongside Nadia Mathieu, project manager for the institution, will share the strategies they implemented to create a functional, bright, caring, and welcoming healthcare environment. Every decision was carefully considered, be it in redesigning the main entrance or adapting clinical spaces to different clienteles. Key aspects include a focus on clear and efficient spatial organization, the use of colour, the integration of art and wood, and the design of public spaces inspired by nature. The wellbeing of mothers, babies, children, and their families was prioritized by creating care spaces that are warm and soothing as well as playful and reassuring. The new child and adolescent psychiatric unit is fully integrated into the project while benefiting from a private entrance and a therapeutic courtyard, which helps reduce the stigma associated with psychiatry and improve the experience of young patients.

Conference attendees will also have another opportunity to visit the new hospital complex in Québec City—including the comprehensive cancer centre—built in consortium with Groupe A, DMG, Lemay, NFOE, and GLCRM.