Peacetime car park to wartime hospital

At last November's 21st IFHE Congress in Tokyo, Israeli architect Arad Sharon described how he and his partner at Tel Aviv-based Sharon Architects, Sharon Gur-Ze'ev, had designed a new children's hospital on Haifa's Rambam Health Care campus, one of Israel's best-known healthcare sites, and already home both to the region's largest medical centre, and a Level 1 Trauma Centre that treats both civilian and military patients. The architects have also designed a 2,000-bed subterranean emergency hospital, which will occupy three storeys below, that will serve as patient, visitor, and staff car parking during peacetime, but be rapidly convertible for medical use in times of conflict.